High School of Commerce - Commerce Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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75e 76:41 ?7adZcz Sedaaim Sem 7 In the early days of Commercial High the faculty was necessarily small in number. The Journal for June 1909 lists sixteen teachers and the principal. Today at Commerce we have a faculty of 79 and three administrators. We believe we have the best faculty in San Fran- cisco. Other schools may disagree. In San Francisco in 1848, however, there was no opportunity for such interscholastic disagreement. There was only one school with only one teacher, a Mr. Thomas Douglas. The one-room school building was located in Ports- mouth Plaza, on Clay Street and faced Kearny. Near- by was Brannan Place. The school was established April 3, 1848. The first day six children, boys and girls, attended. The largest enrollment at any time was 37. Teacher Thomas Douglas lost his pupils when gold was discovered. The adults deserted San Francisco for the gold mines and, of course, took their children along. Mr. Douglas, a teacher without pupils, thereupon did what everyone else was doing. He too took off for the gold mines. The pen and ink sketch on the previous page was done by Choy Chung from an old print of the school building.

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p . . ' iv- ' A 1:5 , l S iff?-7 , s Q . MR- RALPH LEHMAN