• 1907: John DeMuth circulates a petition asking residents to establish a school on the east side of Lancaster.

    1908: Roosevelt School, named after President Theodore Roosevelt, opens with 14 students and one teacher. The school is located in a homestead house with Mrs. Walton as the first teacher. The school was located on 90th Street East near Avenue C.

    1910: Roosevelt School moves to the “Old Story Place,” near 100th Street East and Avenue J.

    1911: Roosevelt School moves to an old homestead shack east of the “Old Story Place.”

    1911: The school moved to its first real schoolhouse (a white wooden structure) on 70th Street East at Avenue H.

    1911: The Redman District is formed and its school is housed at 90th Street East, south of Avenue E (in what is now known as the abandoned Grange building), leaving Roosevelt school with only three students. E.C. Redman loaned the school enough students to keep it open, and Mrs. Walton picks up those students in her horse and buggy and take them back to Roosevelt.

    1918: Tierra Bonita District is formed, and Tierra Bonita School opens a one-room schoolhouse at Avenue J and 40th Street East (in the building now owned by the American Legion).

    1919: School enrollment is up to 44 students and two teachers.

    1920: The white schoolhouse at Avenue H and 70th Street East receives an addition.

    1924: School enrollment is up to 79 students and three teachers, necessitating use of the basement as a classroom.

    1927: New red brick schoolhouse is built on the site of the current Little League field at Avenue H and 70th Street East. This building as well as the original white wooden schoolhouse served the district until 1951.

    Early 1930s: School busing begins with a partially wooden Model A bus without side panels.

    1933: New tar roof replaced old tile roof on the red brick schoolhouse that was damaged by an earthquake.

    1946: Redman, Tierra Bonita, La Solana, and Roosevelt schools merge to form the Eastside Union School District.

    1950-1958: A new building is built for Eastside Union School District at 6742 East Avenue H. It is the last school in California built with indoor corridors.

    1956: Eastside Union School District’s first school library opens.

    1960: Bus garages are built at the 70th and H site.

    1967: Eastside School primary building (eastern-most section of the Avenue H and 70th Street East site) is completed.

    1980: Student enrollment is 513.

    1991: The new Tierra Bonita Elementary School opens at 27th Street East and Lancaster Blvd.

    1999: School enrollment is 2,300 students and 103 teachers.

    2000: Gifford C. Cole Middle School opens at 30th Street and Avenue I.

    Eastside Elementary School (the 1948 building at 6742 East Avenue H) is remodeled.

    2014: Enterprise Elementary School opens at 3730 East Avenue J4.

     

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    Source: "Eastside Union School District." The Heritage Quest: Seven Communities Oral History Project. Office of the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, 1982.