JimmieJoe / KC6YRU

Jefferson School, circa 1917, demolished in 1967. Was there fraud involved? I think maybe.

I attended 4th grade at Jefferson School in 1966, maybe 1965. I remember a huge brick building, with cement aprons around the sides and back for basketball and four-square courts, volleyball poles, and assorted other recess activity markings. I don’t really recall much of the interior, other than the auditorium/cafeteria. That is (was) located on the ‘backside’ of the building as we’re looking at it in the above picture.

Now, Jefferson School is Jefferson Park. The cement is long gone, along with the building. This image is taken from about where the event I witnessed took place, which would be along the north side of the building. (the front of the building shown in the picture above faces east)

So, fraud? I don’t know. My memories are those of a 9 year old, seeing something odd over the course of the school day. Those memories are 58 years old, but I believe I’m recalling it pretty well, since it made an impression on me at the time.

Here’s my scenario:

It’s the mid-1960’s, and Visalia is growing. The school, a (presumably) unreinforced brick structure, might be considered unsafe in the event of an earthquake. The 7.5 Tehachapi earthquake of 1952 might have been the driving force of the demolition of the school, but if that’s so, they waited a long time to act. I don’t know if the school suffered any damage during that quake, however.

Here’s what happened, as I remember it.

I was at school, and it was time for the first recess. I went out to the north side playground, and noticed a ladder perched up against the side of the building. There was a tripod of some sort a few feet away.

Noted. Grown-up stuff, only momentarily interesting.

At lunch, the ladder was still there, this time with someone at the top, futzing with the top layer of bricks underneath the eaves of the building. The tripod now had some kind of film camera mounted to it. Adults standing around, doing grown-up things, again only momentarily interesting. There’s the bell, time to get back to class.

Afternoon recess, and the ladder is still there. So is the man at the top of it, still futzing with the bricks. This time it’s different, though. He comes down, and they set up the film camera.

Now here’s where I think the fraud comes in.

During the recess, and I think the timing was just a coincidence, they started filming. The man climbs the ladder, takes a chisel and a hammer, and begins beating on the bricks under the eaves. The brick comes out with little effort. The man removes it, holds it out so the camera can see it, then climbs down.

End of recess, the bell rings, and we go running back to class. (we’re 9 and 10 year olds. We still run to class)

So.

They took most of the day to work that brick loose, then filmed a man climbing the ladder, hitting it a few times with a hammer and chisel, and then pulling the brick out. I think someone may have wanted that building to seem much more dangerous than it might truly have been.

Anyone know where those bricks ended up? Brick fireplaces were pretty common in home construction back then, and that school would have made a lot of them.

It might have been a perfectly innocent thing. I was only 9 years old, after all, and not at all cognizant of grown-up things. But I’ve always had this memory, and there’s little chance I will ever know what really happened.

So, I wonder.