Richmond High School - Shield Yearbook (Richmond, CA)

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Memorial Park was built to honor the local boys who gave their lives for their country during World War 1. It is located between 12th and 13th Streets on Bissell. Construction of the park began in 1923. Dedication of the park was November 11, 1928, when the War Mothers of Richmond and the Citizens of Richmond erected a plaque with the names of thirty local boys who lost their lives in World War 1. The library at 4th and Nevin is thecity's oldest library. Today it is a branch of the Richmond Public Libraries and houses the Richmond museum too. On February 14, 1950, Contra Costa Junior College began classes in the building below at Point Richmond. Joseph P. Cosanp was the first dean of the college. In the Fall of 1956 the college was moved to its present site at the foot of Tank Farm Hill in San Pablo. The San Pablo Resovoir, located on the Dam Road between El Sobrante and Orinda, provides Richmond and the surrounding communities with water. Besides being a source of water, the resovoir area is a source of intense natural beauty. ‘Yhe oldest lighthouse in San Pablo Bay serves as a warning to ships on foggy and stormy nights. The lighthouse was operated by the Stenmark Family for many years dating back to approximately 1906. It is operated by the United State Coast Guard today and was probably constructed around the year of 1870. Whale oil was once a very vital product, but with the develop- ment of the petroleum fields and of electricity, whale oil lost its place of importance. Today the only whaling station left on the California coast is located in Richmond. oct i} ¢ a

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ld To Richmond High “Landmarks” Take a female character out of Corneille or Racine, streamline and raise tothe nth power, add all synonyms of wise, kind, blithe, playful, cool, gallant, modest, captivating, sprinkle with elan, humor and old-fashioned horse-sense, cover with swishly casual clothes, ferment for thirty-seven years in rooms full of students, and lo! you have the mellow essence of Mrs. Blanche Sandford. She talks fast, says lots, means worlds, feels everything. She teaches French but imparts philosophy. Zigzagging among verbs and nouns, she pinions the great or subtle ideas expressed therein, and holds them up for all to see, probe, accept or reject. No pedant in mothballs, she is moderntoa fault, liberal to the marrow, and fair to the bottom of her king-size heart. Despite her phenomenal style, no teacher could be more our own than Mrs. Sandford. Pinole- born-and-bred, educated at RUHS and the University of California, she returned like a homing-pigeon to Richmond High for her first, last, only and utterly triumphant episode of teaching. Students took to her like ducks to water. Year after yearit was the same, whether she walked down the aisles, knock- ing books off study-hall desks, thereby foiling acrafty student-plot or whether she pinned back crim- son ears in rich French or English or plain Richmondese. No one could resist her; no one ever tried. She was mobbed, imitated, adored and run after; and incidentally she taught lots of French. The sad note for us in the midst of this happy recital is that Mrs. Sandford, though still at the top of her prodigious form, is quitting RUHS for no good reason that we can conceive. Perhaps we, full of self-importance, thought that we were her world. Well, we were, a little. Maybe the simple truth is that she loves her cats and her mountains, her brand-new Dart and the leisure in which to enjoy them more than she loves chalk-dust, language-labs, bells and Oilers. But one thing is plain. We positively know that Richmond High will never be the same without Mrs. Sandford to run to, joke with, learn from, and we rather pity the post-Sandford students of RUHS. However, we must mind our manners, put a good face on things and swallow our fretful protests. So, meilleurs voeux, Mrs. Sandford. Here is our Shield. We, the Class of 1965, and it are dedicated to you. We love you, as you must know. Somehow, leaving RUHS in your splendid company reassures us and makes of our graduation something of an awesome landmark. 9

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B k e e The old Pullman Building on Carlson Boulevard was at one time a focal point of Richmond Industry. The Pullman Company manufacture the finest sleeping cars for trains made, Today the building stands as a reminder of Richmond's past lustre. Foreword The citizens of Richmond are rightly proud of their city with its handsome buildings and striking landmarks. The Shield staff has used these buildings and landmarks as the symbols of Richmond's history. Each division page is de- voted to some phase of Richmond's development and on each of them we have placed a picture and written a description of the appropriate. Richmond landmark. Among the landmarks we have chosen as representative of Richmond's excellence are the Richmond Civic Center, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the Standard Oil Refinery, the Naval Installation at Point Molate, the Richmond Golf and Country Club, the Macdonald Underpass, the Point Richmond Tunnel, and several others which appear here on the Foreword page. We have also included two landmarks of RUHS, the Rock and the Tower. The Rock appears on the Shield cover and the Tower on an introductory page. We chose our theme, Landmarks of Richmond, because it seemed very important to us. We wanted to show off the wonderful accomplishments achieved by Richmond's citizens through the years, and by doing so, to express our admiration and gratitude to those fine and dedicated men and women who made them realities. We also wanted to instill in ourselves, in the student body and in all the young people of Richmond, the same de- sire and drive for civic excellence which inspired our parents and their parents and grandparents to make of Richmond such an extraordinarily fine, bustling, prosperous and modern city. Many years ago these ships were sunk off point San Pablo to make a water break. These ships form a water break for the Richmond Yacht Harbor. The Richmond Plunge was built in 1939 at Point Richmond. The Plunge is a recreational facility for the whole family where swimming is possible all year round. Before Richmond was linked to San Francisco and San Rafael by bridges, the Santa Fe Company used the above device to turn train cars around.