From Schoolhouses to Spring Blooms: A Walk for Women’s History

Last Wednesday was the last Wednesday of March and the last chance this year for our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesday group to celebrate Women's History Month. It was also the first Wednesday of spring and a nice morning, so there were good reasons for the big turnout of 50 walkers and six K-9 best friends to be at the Exedra at our regular time.

Women's History Month started as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed a law authorizing and requesting the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” For the next five years, Congress continued to pass resolutions designating a March week as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to designate the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Since 1988 Congress has passed additional resolutions for the President to proclaim each March as Women’s History Month to celebrate and recognize the contributions women have made to our country.

There are countless examples of women’s contributions to Piedmont. Drawing from an article by Piedmont Historical Society President Gail Lombardi in the Piedmont Post, the story of the Ransom Bridges School was told. Coincidentally, in March, Gail received the Piedmont Recreation Department’s Betty C. Howard Award for her contributions to recreation in Piedmont. This award was created in 1979 to honor Recreation Department volunteers and staff for their dedication and service. It is named after Betty C. Howard, who was the Recreation Department’s secretary for decades in the mid-20th Century.

We appreciated the spring tulips in front of the Exedra vase and headed off through upper Piedmont Park passing more pretty tulips in front of Community Hall. We emerged on Highland Avenue and went down to its corner with Hazel Lane. We enjoyed more spring flowers along the way and the story of Amy Requa Long’s school was told.

At the turn of the 20th Century, Amy wanted her daughters to have good educations, so she got her father, Isaac Requa, to build a one-room schoolhouse on his “The Highlands” estate that was once just up the street from where the walkers were. Requa made his fortune in banking, mining, and railroad businesses, and The Highlands that he built in 1876 was the most impressive of the early Piedmont mansions. Amy hired a teacher for her daughters and a few neighborhood children, and this was the first school in Piedmont. Interest in the school grew and in 1905 Amy leased a house at the corner of Highland and Hazel Lane for it. She also hired Marion Ransom and Edith Bridges from the Anna Head School in Berkeley to be the new school’s teachers.

The school attracted the daughters of prominent Piedmont and California families and soon outgrew its space. In 1908 Amy hired Julia Morgan to design a new school building with classroom and dormitory rooms on five acres of land that is now Hazel Lane. The new Miss Ransom and Miss Bridges School for Girls opened in 1913. Soon after additional classrooms and a gymnasium were added. The school had dormitory rooms for up to 70 students from first grade through high school. In 1924 there were 186 students and in 1928 there were 21 teachers and 42 graduating seniors.

However, the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Depression that followed created financial difficulties for many Ransom Bridges School parents. The new Piedmont High, which started in 1921, was less expensive and Ransom Bridges’ enrollment declined dramatically. In 1932 there were only 12 graduating seniors, and it closed in June that year. In 1936 the school building was demolished, and the land was developed by architect Albert Farr as Ransom Gardens.

We continued up Hazel Lane to the tall redwood tree at 71 Hazel Lane. This was where the entrance to Ransom Bridges school once was. We walked through the Hazel Lane loop to the school’s former site at 141 Hazel Lane and admired the Farr craftsman design of the home that is now there. We took a group photo in front of it. We also noted the neighborhood’s first house at 152 Hazel Lane that was built in 1937. We completed the Hazel Lane loop back to Requa Road and went up the Requa Place cul-de-sac to see where The Highlands mansion once stood.

We then returned to Highland Avenue and went up Caperton Way to Sheridan Avenue and a short portion of Lakeview Avenue to the little-visited Poplar Way. This hidden roadway has a street sign, but no house addresses or poplar trees, but provides an attractive access to the garages of Lakeview and Mountain Avenue homes.

We emerged on Mountain Avenue and descended it to a 217-foot path to Sierra Avenue. Then it was on to Highland and a return to our city center starting spot. It had been an informative walk that recognized some of the many women who have contributed so much to Piedmont and its history.

P.S. I have attached our group photo and some old pictures of the Ransom Bridges School from Meghan Bennett’s History of Piedmont website - https://www.historyofpiedmont.com/ransom