RG01_Manzanita Hall, 1893-1919

Manzanita Hall was established in 1893, as the first private school in Palo Alto, California, and in response to a growing demand for a preparatory school “that would fully meet the demand for admission to Stanford University”, which had opened in 1891. There is a single reference to the Palo Alto Preparatory School for Boys established one year earlier as the predecessor school to Manzanita Hall, but that is found only in The Palo Alto Community Book, c.1953. According to this source, the name was changed to Manzanita Hall in 1893. Brochures published by the school in this collection show no previous name for the school and cite its inception date as 1893.

Frank Cramer was the founder and owner of the school, and good friend of David Starr Jordan, then president of Stanford University. Jordan, impressed with Cramer’s qualifications, encouraged him to begin a preparatory school for boys. The school was originally located in Reverend W. D. Bishop’s house on Waverly Street in Palo Alto. Leroy Dixon was the assistant principal. We can assume that the school was originally opened for primary, junior, and secondary boys because a 1900 school brochure says, “the primary school was discontinued to make room for the advanced department,” which is subsequently defined as the last four years before college. However, sometime between 1900 and 1909 a primary school was again added. The school outgrew the Waverly Street site, and Cramer moved the school in 1895 to permanent grounds in Alba Park, on the outskirts of the then-remote city of Palo Alto. The school description is idyllic, claiming in the 1900 brochure that Palo Alto’s high moral and intellectual character was molded by the influence of the University. A city ordinance barring saloons is cited as resulting in Palo Alto attracting “only the most desirable residents.”

The school prided itself in employing the most qualified instructors. Cramer had graduated from Lawrence University with a degree in biology, and then did advanced work at Stanford and Yale. The instructors were expected to keep in touch with “sources of inspiration at the University” which admitted Manzanita Hall students without examination (1900-1901 brochure). We know that in 1900 the curriculum included Algebra, geometry, history, English, Latin, German, and French, physiology, chemistry and physics. The school encouraged outdoor sports, and had a baseball and football fields, as well as tennis courts in 1900. Although day students were also admitted we believe most students were borders, and they lived in a dormitory with the principal and the teachers. Students were accepted to the school on the recommendation of their prior teachers, who must state that the student is in good standing and “shows evidence of high moral character”.

Cramer, a Palo Alto town trustee and later the first trustee of the town’s first public school, continued as principal until he sold Manzanita Hall to Leroy Dixon in 1902. Dixon sold the school to William Shedd in 1909, but later bought it back from him. Shedd remained as headmaster through at least 1918, and presumably until Dixon sold the school to Colonel Richard P. Kelly in 1919.