For more than a century, the Bear Valley Hall has united
far-flung South County residents through parties, meetings and
reunions
– until now.
In an area where miles often separate neighbors, Bear Valley
Hall, the old one-room schoolhouse on Airline Highway near the
Pinnacles, has served as the community-meeting place since the
1800s.
For more than a century, the Bear Valley Hall has united far-flung South County residents through parties, meetings and reunions – until now.
In an area where miles often separate neighbors, Bear Valley Hall, the old one-room schoolhouse on Airline Highway near the Pinnacles, has served as the community-meeting place since the 1800s.
Families and friends came together for weddings, reunions, birthdays and Pedro parties. A group of women known as the Home Department used the hall for monthly meetings on topics ranging from canning and sewing in the 1960s, to quilting techniques and wildflower identification today.
That ended this month. The venerable Bear Valley Hall, where children once road buckboards and the schoolmarm fired up a potbellied stove before classes, is now locked and closed indefinitely.
Like the grizzlies for which the valley was named, it is on the verge of extinction.
An insurance adjustor has deemed the historic old building – the heart and soul of the community of sprawling, far-flung ranches – unsafe for anything but storage.
The reason? The hall, known as Bear Valley School for most of its life, is still owned by the Jefferson School District. That means it must meet the same safety requirements of any school, a strict new insurance adjustor has decided.
“This building was probably built in the late 1800’s. There is no way in the world it’s going to meet the code for schools,” said Clara Lou Melendy, who has been attending social gatherings at the hall since moving to Bear Valley 50 years ago. “It’s earthquake proof, it has stood up to all the earthquakes. It’s just a hazard as far as a school.”
The old building is a quintessential old schoolhouse – white with a belfry peaking over the front door. Its wood siding is speckled with holes from woodpeckers, where it sits serenely under a grove of oak trees on the east side of Airline just north of the Pinnacles National Monument.
“I don’t like to see it dismantled. It’s just part of that community, some of those people that live close by just feel it’s part of what they own,” said Fern Fancher, the chairman of the Home Department who grew up five miles from the school. “It’s a blow to them really, they never expected it.”
Apparently money has won out over sentimentality.
“It’s a big liability on a school,” said Jefferson school board president JoAnne Falsey. “Any big claims on a school and they will drop your insurance.”
She said that the Jefferson School Board feared that any insurance problems could jeopardize their coverage. Falsey, who has attended events at the hall since moving to the area in the early 1960’s, says she is sad about the closure but has bigger concerns.
“We have a one-room schoolhouse with 10 children. Right now our kids are more important than keeping open an old building,” said Falsey. “I would hate to see someone get injured because of something not being up to code.”
Community members are just now beginning to debate what should be done with the place. The Home Department is its official caretaker and members plan to meet early next month to discuss options – at a member’s home, since even they are no longer allowed to use the hall. There are talks of a fundraiser, or of donating the building to the county historical park.
“It would take a lot of money to fix it but I think it can be done,” said Fancher, “but maybe I’m foolish. People that have lived up there all their lives feel very warm toward it, but they know it has a lot of faults to come up to code.”
Working on a nickel-and-dime budget from rent charged for the use of the hall, admission to card parties and donations, the Home Department can barely make ends meet to perform the basic maintenance of the hall. Bringing it up to code would be a tall order for the small group.
“In order to bring it up to code it would cost a horrendous amount of money,” said Rose Prewett, the secretary and treasurer of the Home Department. “It wouldn’t be a historical building anymore, in my opinion.”
A final decision on the fate of the hall has not been made yet. Jefferson School District has the final say. Talk of raising money through a rodeo has circulated, but some prefer simply donating the hall to San Benito County’s historical society.
“We’re very interested,” said Janet Brians, the secretary of the historical society. “We certainly don’t want to lose a historical building in the county.”
The building would be moved to the society’s historic park on the west side of Airline Highway between Tres Pinos and Bolado Park, joining an existing schoolhouse, several early settlers’ houses, a dance hall, barns and blacksmith and carpenter sheds.
“We need a chapel for the village and it fits the criteria perfectly,” said Janie Lausten, the treasurer of the historical society, who has three generations of family members that attended the Bear Valley School, including a grandmother that taught there.
A chapel could accommodate the weddings that are held at the historical park, but the move would not be easy. It requires permission from the Jefferson School District, money to make the move and approval from the Board of Supervisors. But local residents and members of the Home Department prefer it to the alternative of letting the hall sit and deteriorate as a storage shed.
No matter what happens to the hall, it will be missed.
Earnest Prewett was supposed to have his surprise 90th birthday party at the Bear Valley Hall last weekend, but Rose had to move it to Bolado Park. While the party was a success, Earnest is still sorry that the community wasn’t warned.
“The way it came up people here are getting a bum wrap,” said Earnest. “Now that they’re closing it we got to figure out some place else to go.”
Despite his hard feelings about the closure Earnest says he understands the reasons behind closing the hall, where he was the second generation in his family to attend school.
“It’s just one of the things that I guess has to happen,” said Earnest. “But I’m not really pleased about it.”
Melendy echoes the loss of a local place where neighbors could celebrate milestones.
“We’re isolated out here, it takes us 40 minutes to get to town,” said Melendy, whose late-husband, Walter, is related to Dr. Americus Powers, the man who donated the land the old schoolhouse was built on.
She remembers when teens used the hall for socials and the place was a hubbub of activity.
“Kids all have cars now and they’re running up to town,” Melendy said. “They won’t miss it as much as the old-timers do for memories.”
