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Description
Key Words: Claremont Colleges, Claremont History, Claremont Schools [Tape 1] Eleanor Davis was born in 1916. She recalls the condition of some of the roads, houses, and citrus groves in the Claremont area. She explains how her father began teaching at Pomona College. She tells stories of growing up in Claremont during the 1920’s and attending Sycamore Elementary School. She describes how they would smudge the citrus groves during her childhood. After Davis graduated from Pomona College in 1938, she worked for Bank of America. She and her husband, William Stewart Davis, moved to Tucson in 1956. While living there, she earned her teaching degree and began teaching in elementary schools. In 1962 she and her husband moved back to Claremont, and she began teaching at Condict School. Davis remembers there being a livery stable on the corner of Second Street and Yale Avenue, next to a blacksmith shop. She recalls Mission restaurant on First Street, a grocery store on Yale Avenue, Powell’s hardware store, the Sugar Bowl, a meat market, a bakery, an ice house, two banks, and a dentist office, and the volunteer fire department. She describes several notable people who lived in Claremont when she was younger including Miron Powell, Herbert Paten, Waldo Kell, Ralph Larkin, Henry Cooke, Tobias Larson, Stanley Larson, Bob Bernard, and Charles Sumner. She discusses he father’s transition from the admissions office to the head of the classics department at Pomona College. Her father also served as a city councilmember and mayor from the 1920s to the 1940s. Her father was influential in the establishment of Memorial Park. [Tape 2] Davis’s father was interested in classical music and sports. She describes him as down-to-earth with a good sense of humor. She explains that after her father passed away, her mother lived for many years. She describes her mother as “a very remarkable person, very independent, very capable, very bright.” Davis explains that to her, Claremont still has a New England small town atmosphere. Since she began teaching in the 1950s, the schools in Claremont are much larger. She feels that the children today (1980) do not have as much of a respect for their teachers as they did when she was younger.
Type
sound
Format
Copy Audio cassette
Form/Genre
Oral histories
Extent
1 Tape of 1
Identifier
caclah_000014
Language
English
Subject
Education (Higher)--California Elementary schools Teachers Fathers and children Local history Universities and colleges Education
Time Period
1916/1980
Place
Claremont (Calif.) Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
Provenance
Claremont Heritage California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
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