Maple School Celebrates 100 Years! Part One: The Historic Journey

By Roberto Melendez on February 6, 2024

Two-story Maple School 1927

Maple School is turning 100 this year. An on-campus celebration is planned for April 24, 2024. This is a four-part series on the history of Maple School to the present. Built in rural Fullerton, when citrus groves dominated the landscape, and the city’s population was under 6,000, the school has withstood earthquakes and restoration, student demographic changes, and an unpopular school closure in 1972. Maple School reopened in 1996 after decades of desegregation busing. However, a full elementary school expansion was uncertain because apparently – it lacked sufficient acres. But, through parents’ advocacy and the discovery of additional property, the full expansion was possible. Today, it’s a vibrant school, emphasizing and moving to the forefront of environmental science.

A New Southside School

Maple School is the oldest school in the Fullerton School District (FSD). There were others before Maple, but they no longer exist. Orangethorpe School, built in 1890, is the oldest in the area – but not in the FSD. Orangethorpe opened in the former township of Orangethorpe on the northeast corner of Nicolas (now Euclid) and Orangethorpe Avenue, but the FSD established Orangethorpe in 1949 on its present site on Orangethorpe and Brookhurst. (Sources: OC Register by Lou Ponsi, Jan. 22, 2015 & Fullerton Observer, Terry Galvin, Sept. 2018.)

Maple School was built on the corner of Harvard (Lemon Street) and Maple Avenue (Valencia Drive), hence the school’s name. It was built as a two-story structure on a little over 3 acres. It opened with a racially integrated student population serving southside Fullerton.

The Beginning

Several articles during 1923 in the now defunct Fullerton News Tribune reported a critical need for another grammar school to alleviate crowded conditions at Chapman and Ford Schools. The following are excerpts:

May 3, 1923, “The new building will serve the students east of the Spadra Road (Harbor Blvd.) and south of the Santa Fe Tracks….”
July 13, 1923, “New School is Declared As Great Need: More Facilities to Care for Increasing Population Said to be Urgent Necessity.”

Maple School Teachers 1924-25 Front row, far right, is Principal Helena K. Smith

School Bond Approved

The construction of a new school required funds and the process in 1920s rural Fullerton was voting for a school construction bond. The bond passed in July 1923. The Fullerton News Tribune reported on July 26, 1923, “A $125,000 school construction bond was approved by electors.”

The FSD Board of Trustees immediately approved $16,000 to purchase a little over 3 acres from landowner Harry Burdoff, whose craftsman house remains on the corner of Valencia Dr. and Lemon. The FSD set aside $85,000 to build a two-story school structure and the remaining funds to pave streets, procure classroom furniture, and set up playground equipment. The Trustees selected renowned Fullerton architect Frank K. Benchley, a prominent architect in early Fullerton, to design a 12-room, two-story school. Mr. Benchley also designed the Masonic Temple and the California Hotel (Villa Del Sol) amongst others in Fullerton.

Maple School opened in September 1924. The first principal was Helena K. Smith.

Maple School Boys 1936: Back Row Standing L-R: Frank “Kiko” Munoz, Ralph Simmons, Ernest Johnson, Eddie Montoya and Willie Garcia. L-R Front Row: Shunio Nomoro, Ray Reyes, Billy Burdorf, Everett Simpson and Jimmy Goodwin.

1933 Earthquake and Maple School Reconstruction

The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake damaged the school’s second story. There was a two-phase response to the damage, as reported in Fullerton News Tribune articles from 1934 to 1935. The first phase was removing the second story and the busing out of students using the second floor. The Fullerton News Tribune reported on September 9, 1934, “The board moved to act on Maple Avenue school by ordering the removal of the second story.”

“The two classes which have been using these rooms will be trans- ferred to Ford School…” It also wrote, “It is expected that the work will be possible without serious interference with classroom schedules.” The issue of busing out Maple students will be a recurring theme in the school’s history.

The second phase required retrofitting and reconstructing, including the addition of two classrooms. The Fullerton News Tribune reported on December 11, 1935, that the “Contract for reconstruction and rehabilitation of Maple Ave grammar school was signed by the Fullerton elementary school….”

The article continued, “The 200 children now attending Maple School will be transferred to Ford Ave School….” The federal “New Deal” program provided manpower for the Maple reconstruction, as well as for other schools in the FSD, according to A Historical Study of the FSD 1889- 1966, page 42, Local History Room, Fullerton Public Library.

Additional Acreage Added to Maple Property

Maple School’s property increased beyond three acres in 1946. The Fullerton News Tribune reported on March 29, 1946, “An agreement between the FSD & the City of Fullerton to add five acres south of Maple School to be developed for school grounds and recreational purposes.” It continued by stating, “The City will get about 3 1⁄2 acres (creating Lemon Park), and Maple School will get the remaining 1 1⁄2 acres.”

The deal increased the school’s property to about 4 1⁄2 acres. The deal proved significant fifty years later, Maple School’s expansion to a full K- 6th grade school after the reopening in 1966.

Read Mid-February Observer for Part Two: Maple School: Integrated to Segregated in 1958, which sheds light on how racially integrated Maple School became segregated, which led to its closure in 1972 to fulfill desegregation laws.