Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 5

Washington Primary School, circa 1895. Located at Thirteenth and “G” streets, Washington School was built in 1869 at a cost $13,720 to replace two wooden structures felled by arson – less than two weeks after they were completed – and to meet the needs of the city’s burgeoning northern wards. Upon opening, it housed Intermediate No.3 and Primaries 5 and 8. Its architect, Seth Babson, pursued a style and brick shelling that matched the Union School on Seventh and "G" Streets. As the nineteenth century came to a close, the Washington School possessed a teacher-student ratio of 1 to 30. In 1922/23, the school’s name and occupants relocated to a newer and bigger building at Seventeenth and “E,” but its use – as a continuation school, training center for the Army Signal Corps and headquarters for the American Red Cross – continued well into the 20th-century.



This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.