Visiting schools is a hobby of mine, but today’s visit tops the list for this year at least. Wandering down a narrow road east of Chico, I took a road less traveled. The road to Centerville led me to the Colman Centerville Museum. I didn’t know until I got on top of it that the museum was actually the old school house and, of course, I couldn’t resist. Taking my camera with me I went up the front steps. The dog barking next door must have made the noise that attracted the docent for the museum to her front porch. She offered to show me around.

I apologize for not giving you her name, but I have misplaced her card temporarily. When it shows up I will happily provide the information. At first I didn’t want to bother her, but school curiosity got the best of me. She graciously let me in.

Built in 1894, yes a different turn of the century, the Centerville School has the real feel and charm of the old one room school house. I was given a quick history of the schools built before this one, but they couldn’t top the story of how this one came to be.

It seems the area around Centerville was growing a bit in the early 1890s. A small school existed, but more room was needed. One of the families contained a young woman who could do the teaching, but there wasn’t room enough for her so she decided to go to San Francisco where the schools were larger. A gentleman from the community had become quite smitten with the lady but had not even asked her for a date.

Realizing that she was going somewhere else to teach, Charles Hintz did the only wise thing he could do. He hauled lumber from his mill above Magalia and built a school on property he owned in Centerville. Then he went to San Francisco to ask Miss Ada Woods to go out with him, come be the teacher, and to marry him. I’m not sure in which order. It seems Miss Ada agreed and became the school’s first teacher.

Miss Ada, however, was definitely not following the 1915 Rules for Teachers my guide gave me as I was leaving. I’ll mention just a few of the rules for the women teachers and let you go visit the Colman Centerville Museum on some Saturday or Sunday afternoon to get the rest:

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
9. You many under no circumstances dye your hair.
12. To keep the school room neat and clean you must: sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day, and start the fire at 7 AM so the room will be warm by 8 AM.

The toughest one for me might well be the not being able to loiter downtown in ice cream stores. Sigh…