Our school is named for San Diego pioneer Matthew Sherman. Captain Sherman fought in America's Civil War, and later came West where he settled in the still wide-open San Diego.
Captain Sherman bought up land overlooking downtown at 50-cents per acre and sold lots to fellow pioneers in the neighborhood now named for Sherman. They built stately homes, many with stunning views of San Diego Bay, Coronado and the growing downtown. A school opened in 1870.
To entice families to settle here, Sherman donated land for a big new school, which opened September 1889 as a three-story wooden building distinguished by its graceful bell tower.
In its century-plus history, Sherman school has been moved, knocked down and rebuilt again many times. Its name and approach to education changed over the years. But the neighborhood's devotion to its school has never diminished.
Residents never stopped pitching in. They planted trees. They planted flowers. They banded together and tapped more volunteers and partners to pitch in. They cleaned up trash, they painted and repaired. Their unflagging investment in the neighborhood has paid off and today many of the grand old homes stand proud once again.
And as always, at the heart of it all, sits the neighborhood jewel: Sherman school.
(SCHOOL BELLS: At right, views of the evolution of Sherman school from a 19th century Victorian to this brick facade structure in the mid-20th century to the current innovative two-story design that encompasses the old bell in a new belltower.)