Bear Valley School: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Pinnacles National Park
Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2020. Bear Valley School: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Pinnacles National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976137. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Pacific West Regional Office, San Francisco, California / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: The Bear Valley School Historic District is a three-acre site located approximately 1.25 miles northwest of the Pinnacles National Park east entrance, along California State Highway 25. The Bear Valley School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 (ref. #14000267) as significant at the local level under Criterion A, in the area of Education. For more than half a century, this was the only public, or common, school serving the small agricultural, homestead community. Most of the original homesteading families sent their children here. The period of significance for the Bear Valley School extends from 1902 to 1950, beginning with the year construction began on the present schoolhouse—the second to exist on this site—and ending with the last year classes were held. The Bear Valley School site is characterized by a small, westwardly situated schoolhouse set within a small grove of valley oaks with an expansive school yard in its foreground. The parcel is located on the relatively level, grassy bottomlands of Bear Valley and is bounded by State Highway 25 to its west and Bear Creek to its east. The gentle terrain characteristic of the bottomlands afforded an ideal school yard of open grassland and Bear Creek that flowed to the rear of the schoolhouse served as the primary source of water for the school during the historic period. In addition to the primary development, the schoolhouse, the Bear Valley School site includes a perimeter fence constructed in 1895, a heating oil platform, a well, an electric pump, and a pumphouse. A wooden exclosure also protects a commemorative tree.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2020-11-12
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- PINN , PWR
- Keywords
- agriculture, commemorative tree, community hall, education, homestead community, school, schoolhouse, valley oak
- Subjects
- NPS.gov Subject Site: Cultural Landscapes , CRIS-CL: 976137: Bear Valley School (976137)