It is not until 1867 that the first written notice of an American-style school house is recorded. It stood at Florence Avenue and Tweedy Lane, and probably had a roof of tule leaves.
That school had already been there several years. In 1867 the new anglo settlers organized The Silver District to include the area between the Rio Hondo and Rio San Gabriel rivers. But this was a huge district and proved unmanageable. In 1869 the Alameda District was formed by the petition of C. Gillett, and in 1888 the Old River District was also carved out of the old Silver District.
Downey was becoming two communities following the Civil War. One was at the old stage station, and was called Gallatin. The other, to the south, was known as the College Settlement at Paramount Boulevard and Alameda Avenue.
The two eventually were brought together by the railroad which laid its track right between them.
The new railroad station was at first called Los Nietos, but eventually was called by the name of the major land developer of the area, former Governor John G. Downey.
When a dispute over who would become principal of the old Silver School erupted, the solution was to build another school house to serve the new community that was gathering around the train station. That school was erected at the corner of Dolan and Third Street on two acres purchased from Downey and his partners of the McFarland Land Developers in 1880.
By 1893 the residents of the Gallatin area also wanted a separate school. They withdrew from the Silver District and built a schoolhouse at what survives today as Gallatin Elementary.
The original Alameda School at Imperial and Clark Street was apparently not too well constructed, and was blown away by a storm in 1871.
But by 1880 a sturdier structure was erected where the present Alameda School stands today. That structure stood until destroyed by a fire in 1921. The building erected at the same site in 1922 is the core of the structure we know as Alameda Elementary School today.
In 1888, the residents near the county poor farm (now Rancho Los Amigos) created their own school district which they called "Old River." In 1946 they sold the property to the Grace Baptist congregation who moved the building east on Quill Drive two blocks.
In 1901, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that common schools should extend through 12 grades and should be supported by the states, high schools sprang up all across the country.
Downey was no exception. The residents of Los Nietos Valley formed the Union High School District and used the wooden auditorium of the existing Downey Grammar School at Dolan and Second for several years for classes.
A new high school was built in 1912, and the old auditorium burned shortly thereafter. In 1915 the name of the district was formally changed to the Downey Union High School District.
Following World War II, the building boom here jumped the population from 12,000 in 1940 to an astonishing 86,000 by 1960.
The school districts felt the pressure of growth. Rio Hondo School was erected in 1949. The Gallatin District which had but 72 children and three teachers as late as 1953, had to provide for more than 3,000 students by 1959. It built (in succession) Maude Price School, the Rancho Santa Gertrudes School and the Roger Casier School, and also added classrooms to the old Gallatin School.
Not to be outdone, the Alameda District built the Ed Lewis School in 1950, the E.W. Ward School and the C.C. Carpenter School in 1952, the Imperial School in 1954, the Lynn Pace School in 1955, and the Gauldin School in 1956.
The Old River District added the Rives Avenue School in 1953 and the Meadow Park School in 1955.
Central Downey experienced slightly slower growth. The Downey District added the Spencer V. Williams and Rio San Gabriel schools in 1952, and also built classes and a cafeteria for a new Downey Elementary north of Third Street.
The Downey Union High School District had more time to deal with the student boom. It’s first new school, North Junior High, was finished in 1953, followed by South, East and then West Junior High which was finished in 1957. Woodruff Junior High followed in 1958.
A second senior high school named for Chief Justice Earl Warren, was completed in 1958, and a continuation high school opened its doors in 1965.
Meanwhile, the Downey Unified School District had been established by linking the previously mentioned districts in 1956. Its fine tradition of educational excellence dates back more than a century to pioneer days.