Happy Black History Month! This photo depicts Miss Durgin’s class c. 1887.The school featured is the first schoolhouse building in Coronado, now in the current location of Coronado High School, started as a wood-floored tent, and expanded to a temporary building at Seventh and E Ave. The fully complete building was written about in the January 31st Issue of the Coronado Evening Mercury in 1888, and took in a group of 86 students for its first term. It had 5 classrooms, washrooms, a library, closets, and “a number of blackboards,” as well as a veranda. According to the 1900 census, we know that there were 5 Black families that lived in Coronado: the Hunters, the Marshalls, the Thompsons, the Banks, and the Hindenbrands. Although we don’t fully know the identities of the two children in the photograph, we can assume they came from either the Marshall, Thompson, or Banks families. Through this photograph, we get a glimpse into the earliest years of Coronado’s development, helping us learn about the past that impacted our present and future.
