Rebirth of Marshall School in Midtown

2011-05-10T19:14:41Z

“Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass. For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas. And you make them long, and you make them tough. But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off…

Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air. But will you keep on building higher til there’s no more room up there? …

I know we’ve come a long way, Were changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?”

Cat Stevens

In the rush to make Sacramento a big city we seem to concentrate on the expanding bars, restaurants, basketball arena, high rises, and other superficial aspects of a big city. We forget that key components to a successful revitalized city are the children and good schools.

A major step to bringing good schools back to downtown occurred last Saturday at Old Marshall School at 28th and G Streets. The California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus, a public charter grade school, had a ceremonial march of over 250 students, parents and neighbors from their old leased space at Pioneer Congregational Church at 28th and L Streets to their new home at Historic Marshall School at 28th and G Streets.

Marshall School, built in 1903 and designed by Rudolph Harold, a locally prominent architect who designed City Hall, was used as a grade school until 1976. In the 1960s and 70s, the great exodus of families from the central city led to the conversion of Marshall School into an adult school. Gradually, as pioneer restoration people began to return to the central city in the 1980s with their families, changing attitudes about living in Midtown, Metro Square and other housing developments began to set the foundation for bringing the school back to Midtown.

On August 17, Old Marshall Adult School will be reborn again into a quality grade school, renamed to California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus at Historic Marshall. This historic moment is brought into perspective if we consider that the establishment of a public grade school in the central city is the first in 70 years.

Let’s take this opportunity in the economic recession to reestablish our priorities and make sure we make room for children in our city’s growth. If we ignore this critical element we will fail.

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