| Sequoia’s Campus had originally been a part of the large
Las Pulgas Rancho (Ranch of the Fleas) granted to the heirs of
Jose Dario Arguello by the Mexican Government in 1835. The Board
of Land Commissioners, established by the United States government
after California gained statehood in 1850, confirmed the Arguellos’
title to the rancho in 1853. During the confirmation process the
Arguellos sold a 2,200-acre parcel to one of the three land commissioners,
William Carey Jones. Jones in turn sold the property to San Mateo
County lawmaker Horace Hawes in 1857. Hawes, author of the legislative
bill that created San Mateo County, constructed an elegant, well-landscaped
estate along the old county road on the forty acres site of the
future high school. In 1880, Hawes’s widow sold the “Hawes
Farm” to Moses Hopkins, brother of Mark Hopkins, who raised
and bred thoroughbred horses on the renamed “Redwood Farm”.
Hopkins built Emerald Lake as a water supply reservoir for his
ranch.
On July 2, 1902, cement magnate William J. Dingee purchased the
Hopkins estate, remodeling the house and outbuildings and transforming
the grounds into “Dingee Park”. The house, which was
completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake, was located on
the present site of the main school building. Remaining as evidence
of this period of occupation are the concrete entry path and associated
planting beds with decorative benches built by Dingee after 1902.
These features once fronted the house and now act as a handsome
ceremonial entry for the school. Dingee converted a rockery at
the rear of the house into a scene with cascades and fountains
with a rustic covered structure called a summerhouse built in
its midst. This natural feature would be translated over time
into Sequoia High School’s “Garden of Cherokee”
and later as the “Japanese Tea Garden”. A failed attempt
to corner the cement market bankrupted Dingee.
In 1909 ownership of the property passed to noted San Francisco
architect Albert Pissis and his wife Georgia. It was under Pissis
that the land was greatly improved and developed. It was Georgia
Pissis who offered to sell the land for municipal use in 1920.
Redwood City rapidly prepared and passed school bond issues for
the purchase of the property and construction of the new facilities
for Sequoia.
Sources: The Cherokee Manual, Sequoia Union High School, Second
Edition, 1930 and Third Edition, 1941 (A handbook for Sequoians
published by the Associated Students of Sequoia Union High School)
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form prepared
by Kent L. Seavey/Preservation Consultant, on behalf of the Sequoia
High School Alumni Association, September 1, 1994
CAMPUS FEATURES
1. “The Chained Oak” (Quercus lobata)
– Near the El Camino Gate to the right as you enter the
grounds stands an old valley oak. A eucalyptus tree planted in
the middle of the 19th century grew to overtop it. The winds of
winter tossed the old oak and the rains loosened its aged roots
until it nearly gave way. Tree lovers forged a chain to save it
and attached it to the nearby eucalyptus tree. The chain is long
gone but the band about the tree is still there to be seen.
2. Monkey-Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana)
– In the corner of the campus near the intersection of James
Avenue and El Camino Real are two of these bizarre-looking evergreens.
Native to Chile and Argentina, the name of the tree was derived
from a comment made from an Englishman in the 1800s, who thought
it would certainly be a puzzle for a monkey to climb, although
there are no monkeys native to the area in which the tree is indigenous.
3. Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis)
– Flanking the formal garden across the main drive from
the bell tower are two Canary Island date palms. They originate
in the naturally wet areas in the drier parts of the Canary Islands.
4. Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta)
– Growing near the date palms is a taller Mexican fan palm.
This came to us from the southern desert hills of Mexico. The
color and moods of the Yaqui Indian, and the mysterious highlands
and desert stretches of Sonora are still reflected in its crown
5. “Giant Eucalyptus” (Eucalyptus
globulus) – Shading the walks and arches of the classic
Carrington Hall Auditorium, stands a stately and gigantic eucalyptus.
Its bark, tinted with pastel colors of soft blues and grays and
faint vermillion; its spreading oak-like branches; its thin silvery
foliage, filtering the rays of the sun or moon, makes it stand
as the most romantic figure on Sequoias campus.
6. Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
– To the right of the pathway leading to the Carrington
Hall Auditorium stands this deciduous conifer, native to central
China. The species was introduced to the United States and Europe
around 1948. It is one of the few cone-bearing deciduous trees.
The needles are bright green, about ½” long and are
soft, changing to a bright copper color in the fall.
7. Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron gigantean)
– Near the Dawn Redwood are two large giant sequoia.
8. Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirons)
– Between the Music Building and Brewster Avenue stands
an old and beautiful example of the tree used as a model for the
Sequoia Seal.
9. Prickly Paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides)
– Across the roadway from the Giant Sequoia are two unusually
large Prickly Paperbarks.
10. Australian Tea Tree (Leptospermum laevigatum)
– On the same side of the roadway heading back in the direction
of the bell tower is a fine old specimen of an Australian Tea
tree. It is native to South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales,
and Tasmania. Fifteen foot tall continuous masses of this tree
have been seen on the coast of Tasmania, but this specimen is
typical of single plants, in that it has formed a contorted, twisted,
horizontal trunk. Captain Cook used the foliage of this shrub
to brew a tea which prevented scurvy in his crew, hence the name
tea-tree. This could certainly date back to 1900 or before.
11. Deodara Cedar (Cedrus deodara) –
Across the main driveway from the bell tower and to the left of
the tower entrance, came two of our most beautiful cedars from
the slopes of the mighty Himalayan Mountains. The drooping branches
remind us of the pagodas of their native India.
12. Atlas Cedar (Cedrus Atlantica glauca)
– In between the two Cedrus Deodaras, across the main driveway
from bell tower, is another one of our stately cedars. This came
to us from the slopes of the Atlas Mountains of Africa.
13. Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
– To the right of the entry to the main school building
is this very old specimen of an Incense Cedar, although it is
probably no older than the school.
14. Lawson Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana)
– Just in front of the main school building across the walkway
is a stand of Lawson Cypress. Note that this is not a true cypress.
This tree has four trunks but each of the four is an old branch
lying on the ground and rooted and now producing a vertical trunk.
It requires many years for a Lawson cypress to achieve this structure.
This tree could predate the 1920’s.
15. Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
– Across the roadway from the multi-purpose room is a fine,
very old specimen.
16. “Cherokee’s Brothers”
– along one of the pathways in the Japanese Tea Garden,
formerly the “Garden of Cherokee”, are four Guadalupe
Palms (Brahea edulis) originating from Guadalupe Island off the
west coast of Mexico, known historically as “Cherokee’s
Brothers”. Sequoia legend has it that a gnarled Oak that
once stood in the center of the garden was once a young Indian
chief, the lover of Cherokee, a beautiful Indian Maiden who spent
her girlhood gathering together the treasures of nature that are
found there. He helped her by building the little rustic paths.
Until her death, which was indirectly caused by her lover picking
the flowers of the Great Spirit, the red Geums, Cherokee’s
own hands cared for the garden.
Friends and loved ones of the two came to mourn and the Great
Spirit took such
pity on them that he changed them into trees and plants. Cherokee’s
mother was a
beautiful Madrone that once stood in the garden. Close to the
Madrone once stood
a tall Drecena, Cherokee’s father. The young chief’s
warriors were changed into
sturdy Agaves, also gone. All that remains are Cherokee’s
brothers.
17. Korean War Dogs – In the Japanese
Tea Garden, are two big, metal Korean War Dogs, given to the school
district by the Japanese government. Accounts differ as to the
history of the statues. A special history edition of the Sequoia
Times states that the statues, “Kina Inu,” as they
are called, were gifts from the San Francisco Golden Gate Exposition
of 1939-40. However, a San Francisco Examiner story, written by
a Frank Raymond of Redwood City, states the statues graced the
Japanese exhibit at the San Francisco’s 1915 Pan American
Exposition. The later version jibes with the memory of former
Vice Principal, Ruth Olds, who remembered the Korean War Dogs
being in the Tea Garden when she was a student in 1928-31.
17. Ginkgo Trees (Ginkgo biloba) –
In the western portion of the Japanese Tea Garden are two fine
old Ginkgo trees. Described as a "living fossil", the
Ginkgo tree, native to China, dates back 150 million years. This
slow growing tree is not only ornamental, but a pollution fighter
as well. The leaves are used as a health aid.
18. Kentucky Coffee Trees (Gymnocladus dioica)
– Next in the Japanese Tea Garden are four old Kentucky
Coffee trees. There are very few of these in California. The seeds
in its rubbery reddish-brown pods were once roasted by Native
Americans and ground as a coffee substitute by early European
settlers. Native Americans also used the powdered roots as “smelling
salts” to help recuperate patients.
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