History
History of Chabot Elementary School
What we now know as Anthony Chabot Elementary School was founded at the current location as the Claremont Annex School on January 7, 1927. Before that time, Claremont Junior High School (now Claremont Middle School) had included kindergarten through junior high school. The PTA, with 86 original members, played a major role in the creation of the new school. The first PTA Treasurer’s Report, dated February 3, 1927, showed a balance of $54.50.
On August 27, 1927, the school was dedicated and renamed Chabot School in honor of Anthony Chabot, a 19th-century entrepreneur who built Oakland’s first municipal water supply by damming Temescal Creek. There were 415 students enrolled. The Chabot district at the time was apparently a little larger than it is today; records of PTA members include addresses that are now in South Berkeley or slightly west of the current Chabot district border.
By 1928, the PTA included 285 members. The PTA discussed the advantages of “teaching rhythm in a musical way to 1st – 2nd – & 3rd grades.” The PTA also discussed a gardening program. School field trips that year included a visit to the Immigration Station on Angel Island – the point of entry for most Chinese immigrants to California – and the Sixth Grade studied immigration issues.
In 1930, the Superintendent’s Council recommended that the name of the school be changed to Anthony Chabot School. A letter dated August 20, 1930 from the Superintendent of Schools to Principal F.B. Zimmerman announces that the Board of Education approved this change.
Enrollment grew, and in 1931 reached 443 students. In 1932 the PTA implemented child study classes and swimming classes (the PTA records do not say where the children swam).
By the late 1930s, the PTA meetings had themes connected with world events. The Report for the Year 1937-1938 reports “our program this year was especially significant – peace through understanding.” PTA meetings, held in the Auditorium, seem to have been quite the social events, with tea served in a “gracious manner.” The meetings also seem to have had educational components, with guest speakers on such subjects as local natural resources, child development, crime prevention and law enforcement. They even featured occasional performances by the students. At one meeting a local Boy Scout troop acted as Guard of Honor.
The first woman principal of the school, Miss Leslie Smith, was introduced in the 1941-42 school year. The same year saw a successful Bazaar Carnival, which netted $322.25, and “Plans for a Spring Luncheon and Fashion Show were announced, with the proceeds to go to the Red Cross.” Movies seem to have been important at Chabot, since the PTA boasted a Motion Picture Chairman. The 1942-43 theme was “Firm Foundations for Children in Wartime,” and PTA minutes reflect many discussions of the war, particularly its effect on children. The Financial Secretary reported that $449.28 was taken in during the school year.
About Anthony Chabot
Adapted from Life of Anthony Chabot by the Children of the Sixth Grade, Anthony Chabot School, Fall 1930
Anthony Chabot was born on a farm in Quebec, Canada, in the year 1814. Anthony was one of sixteen children. Although his father owned a large farm he did not raise any more than enough to give his family the bare necessities of life. At the age of fourteen Anthony ran away from home to make his living. He went to Southern Canada and worked as an engineer. He remained there for a number of years. Then he heard of the discovery of gold and came to California.
When Mr. Chabot arrived at Nevada City, the heart of the gold mining district, he was told that all of the best claims had been taken, but it did not worry him as he was thinking out a plan. He thought of trying to move dirt by means of water to get to the gold that was in the dirt. He used “ground sluicing” instead of the methods used by other miners. Ground sluicing was a method which had been used hundreds of years before by the Romans. Although Mr. Chabot had gone to school only about four years during his life he had read and understood Roman history. His method proved a success from the first, and it soon became necessary for him to employ many men. Mr. Chabot then commenced hydraulic mining. He made as much as one thousand dollars a day using this method. Mr. Chabot, as the first man to extract gold by means of moving the earth by water pressure, is called “the father of hydraulic mining.” He built two saw mills in Sierra County. The lumber was used in building dams, flumes, and sluices for his mines.
After leaving the mines Mr. Chabot went to San Francisco and started the first public water system in that city. The success that Mr. Chabot met in this project led him to go further in supplying other cities with water, including Portland, Maine and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was about this time, too, when he thought of a method of transporting oil by pipeline.
In 1866, when Mr. Chabot returned to California, he saw that Oakland was badly in need of running water as at that time the city was supplied by wells. He found a creek which he thought would be just what they needed. This was Temescal Creek. Temescal Creek was dammed, a lake was formed, and by 1869 the city was supplied from Lake Temescal.
The name of Anthony Chabot was always among the first on the list whenever money was needed for charitable purposes. He gave most of the money for the building of a cottage to provide accommodation for veterans in Yountville. He gave Oakland an observatory located in Lafayette Park. He wanted it to be called “Oakland Observatory” but the public would not listen, so it was always referred to as “Chabot Observatory.” His last gift to charity was the largest ever given to any charitable organization of Oakland: a Sheltering Home for women out of work, and for children whose mothers are employed during the day. Mr. Chabot also helped many people directly, including many who worked for him.
Anthony Chabot died on January 6, 1888. Even those whom he had not helped directly grieved that the city had lost a great benefactor. His funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Oakland. A tall marble shaft simply inscribed, “A. Chabot” rises above his grave in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.