Located on what is now Woodland Parkway , the one-room schoolhouse was built in 1889 of redwood boards and square nails. A year later, a second classroom was added. One room housed grades one to four; the other, five through eight.

The New England-style structure with its distinctive belfry was the first school in San Marcos to have a bell, said Maryanne Cioe, a librarian at the San Marcos Historical Society. The school served the Richland area for nearly 70 years as the community grew and eventually became part of the city of San Marcos . Originally called Richland School , it was renamed Old Richland School in 1962 after the construction of a new elementary school of the same name.

Like many rural schools of its day, Old Richland served as a community center and, at times, a church. The school didn't have electricity or running water until the late 1930s. Before that, kerosene lamps were used for evening events, and a windmill drew water from a nearby well.

The historical society archives contain reminiscences of former students, recalling the days of a small, tightly knit rural community. Louise Fulton Hard, a first-grader at the school in 1917, wrote about climbing the steep hill to the schoolhouse with her classmates each morning, boys and girls going to their respective anterooms, and getting "a drink of water from the dipper in the water bucket." The tolling school bell meant "an hour to play before the bell rang again to call us in."

Old Richland School 's bell figured prominently in a story related by former student Ida Lucas Dodge in a letter written in 1971 that's now owned by the historical society. She attended the school from 1914 to 1915, along with her older sister, Nellie. Describing herself in the third grade as a "very shy" small-for-her-age loner, Dodge relates what happened one day when her teacher, Miss Fulton, asked her to ring the school bell, signifying the end of recess. "I became so carried away by the fun of swinging up and down on the bell rope, that when my sister came in to stop me, I had rung the bell twenty-four times!" Embarrassed "to the point of tears," little Ida went outside "to find everyone, even Miss Fulton, laughing hilariously!"

Al Wilson, whose brothers and sisters attended Old Richland School in the 1930s, later became an Escondido real estate agent. He spoke warmly of his years at the school to a San Marcos Courier reporter in the early 1960s. "The average kid didn't get lost in the shuffle," he said. "A kid gets an identity in a small school." ADDED: Carol (Wilson) Stratton, his sister, recently wrote us and said, "I can agree that his statement about ?not getting lost in the shuffle? as our entire school census during those years never reached more than 30." She continues, "During the flood of 1938, only the railroad tracks were ?high and dry? and so my two brothers and I were three of the six that ?walked the rails? and were able to get to school at that time."

In 1947, the old schoolhouse was closed after 58 continuous years of service. It was reopened in 1951 to house an overflow of second-and third-graders from the Richmar Elementary School District . The school was retired again in 1957.

In 1966, the boarded-up building and eight surrounding acres were purchased by retirees John and Thelma Nichols, who remodeled the building as a home while preserving as much of the schoolhouse as possible.

In 1984, Arie De Jong, a prominent businessman, bought the property and continued to restore the schoolhouse structure and furnishings. In 1997, he opened the schoolhouse as a social hall for catered events. The building's metamorphosis was not finished.

In 2002, it was leased by Delphi Academy , which converted it to a private school campus, offering kindergarten through third-grade classes. The old schoolhouse had come full circle.

Vincent Nicholas Rossi is a freelance writer based in Rancho Bernardo. Have a personal story you'd like to share about your time at Old Richland School? Please call or email us!