Taper Avenue Elementary History Blog
Taper Avenue Elementary in San Pedro, California, opened September 10, 1961 along with seven other new schools in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Students had only been saluting a 50-star United States Flag since 1959!
Here is the full article:
A synopsis has been provided on the right.
The Taper Avenue name origination comes from losangelesstreetnames.com
Burch Construction was based in North Hollywood.
The new housing tract that Taper Avenue School was to serve were the homes with
Westmont Drive on the north,
North Gaffey Avenue on the east,
West Capitol Drive on the south,
and Amelia Avenue on the west.
Almost Ready to Open!
San Pedro News Pilot July 7, 1961
Bidding for the new school's playground.
The new school will accommodate 185 pupils initially, 850 by 1965.
Taper Avenue Elementary began with eleven classrooms, two kindergartens, and had four portable classrooms on the lot.
Six teachers and principal James Traughber greeted the students the next day, Monday September 10.
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Right down the street was a drive-in!
[This picture was snapped from a photographic history book. Although mostly unreadable, the marquee was from the time that the drive in on Gaffey (post 1977) was showing Spanish-language films. Just to the right of the picture would've been Westmont, and across the street would've been the lot that Home Depot sits on now.]
The PTA, now known as the PTO, was a unit of the
Lomita-San Pedro Council
summer of 1962!
This article mentions receiving books from Crestwood School which was built in 1955
above Western Ave down by Peck Park.
The donations were needed because of cutbacks in school budgets. Budget shortfalls were remedied by proceeds from school carnivals and other projects.
Halloween Fun in 1963!
On to December fun!
The auditorium and the cafeteria area wasn't finished until the spring of 1965!
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This is the new K. Wayne Scott Auditorium
with the cafeteria, teachers' lunchroom,
and students' lunch area.
Remember: the school was built in 1961, but these additions didn't appear until 1965.
GREAT NEWS TO HAVE THE ADDITIONS, BUT IT WASN'T UNTIL 1967 THAT THE WORK BEGAN!
January 1966 Taper Gets Two New Pianos
Radio and TV personality Art Linkletter had a show on Los Angeles NBC television station from 1952-1969.
In 1966, students from Taper Avenue Elementary in San Pedro appeared on the show and won two pianos for the school!
[stock photo from the show, not a Taper student]
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If the name Art Linkletter rings a bell, he was one of three television commentators roaming around on the opening day of Disneyland on July 17, 1955.
Taper Mural at LAX
San Pedro Pilot August 10, 1966
Newspapers often reported school break-ins which mostly occurred over the weekends.
Walkie-Talkies? Here is an ad from Taper's hometown newspaper the News-Pilot which approximates what was stolen in the burglary!
The Blue Birds had toured the local newspaper facilities in 1968, and now it was the Taper Girl Scouts Troop #1070's turn. Students were always very excited to see their names in the local newspaper.
Special American Flag
flown at Taper for Memorial Day
San Pedro Pilot May 26, 1969
Having once flown over the nation's Capitol, this special flag had been hoisted on the Taper flagpole in honor of the funerals of President John F. Kennedy in 1961, Martin Luther King in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1969.
Taper Avenue Elementary history lovers:
Does the school still have this "Grand Old Flag"?
Another MURAL from TAPER featured at
Los Angeles International Airport
Principal Traughber Says "Farewell to Taper"
San Pedro Founder's Day Celebration at Taper
Anti-drug Program at Taper
Weymouth Science Center
San Pedro News Pilot October 28, 1970
This article explains that the Weymouth Science Center at 2201 Barrywood near the school had opened in October 1969 but had to shut its doors due to budget cuts. PTA members and neighborhood volunteers went to work securing donations from local businesses and fixing-up the facility with their own donated labor. The Science Center was a great place to take "walking field trips" from Taper Elementary.
The bottom half of the article explains that new animals were brought in such as a pig, a sheep, a goat, a turkey, a guinea pig, mice, rabbits, and chickens.
A full-time science teacher staffed the place. Staff and students took care of the livestock during the week as neighborhood parents and other volunteers took over on the weekends.
"Barnyard Burglary"
The thieves stole "Cleo", "Little Red Hen", and "Fluffy." "Fluffy" had hatched the previous September, and the kids had watched her grow.
The chickens were the ARAUCANA breed which
were native to southern Chile. They lay pink, green, and blue eggs (but all the eggs at Taper were blue).
This article was in the newspaper on Saturday March 6, but lo and behold, 19 eggs in the incubator started hatching the following Wednesday! Cheer up students and staff!
What about the rooster Mr. Pedro? He was so noisy at night that he was locked in a closet every night which kept him from getting stolen, too.
Besides the chickens, the kindergarten had ducks, turtles, and rabbits, and the students could pick them up whenever they wanted to.
The article said Taper had about 180 kindergarteners at that time.
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This must've been a lot of FUN!
Summer Reading Program at Taper!
Tumbling and Gymnastics at Taper
This is a lot to read, but it clearly shows that, back in the day, the local newspaper was very involved in school activities and devoted space in the paper for articles such as this.
SYNOPSIS:
Irene Rich, fluent in German, and Janet Head, a music teacher, started a summer program that taught the German language twice a week from 8 to 12:30 in classes from Kinder to Fifth Grade.
In all, about 180 students were involved in the summer program!
This Sports Night event was very special because the teams were pairs of parent and child.
Ten events were planned by teacher Andy Vitalich
Each pair had five turns at each event.
Girl Scouts in Action!
Boy Scouts Troop
pancake breakfast
180 sixth grade students participated in creating a movie about the school year at Taper.
They organized, directed, filmed, edited, added sound to the film under the watchful eye of technician/teacher William Richard.
It was probably the first time in L.A, City Schools that a school had filmed activities such as football games, track meets, astronomy projects, musical assemblies.
Boy Scout Troop #956 Eagle Scout!
Charles Hart, Jr became the very first Eagle Scout. Having done all his preliminary work at Taper, he was an eighth grade student at Holy Trinity School. The award ceremony was held at Taper.
Sports and Halloween Festival
This PTA event featured a parade, two puppet shows, a football exhibition, and the tumbling team also performed.
Christmas Concert 1973
Gymnast Featured
1974: first Book Fair & Craft Show
A friendly reminder to motorists on the last day of school. Please drive carefully!
Taper Olympics
Another mural at LAX!
Remember the other mural earlier in this blog in 1966? This one was from July 1976 and, like the other picture, the admirer was NOT a Taper student. This mural at the Eastern Airlines terminal was created by 1st and 2nd grade students at Taper.
Special Santa at Taper's Kindergartens
The jolly ol' St. Nick in this article was Victor Christensen who, for the previous six years had provided animals for the Kindergarten pod such as Aracuna chickens, mallard ducks, desert tortoises, and rabbits.
See the "barnyard burglary" from March 1971 earlier in this blog.
May 1978
Five schools in the Harbor Area including Taper were selected to become "magnet" schools in September 1978.
Taper will accept students from first to sixth for this new program specializing in
Math and Science.
Adult Square Dance Club at Taper
The barbecue and square dance featured in this article was sponsored
by the Taper community support group
Principal K. Wayne Scott Retires
Taper Avenue Magnet School for the Gifted
Test Scores November 1981
Magnet School Moves (1982)
End of the Year Movies
Shot by Taper Students
Taper 6th graders shooting and End-of-the-Year movie is spotlighted in this April 1983 article, but the tradition of EOY movies actually goes as far back as 1973! Scroll up to the June 12, 1973 page to get the back-story.
6th grade teachers Bill Richard, Doris Cashman, Betty Walker and Andy Vitalich were directors and producers using four or five Super-8 cameras for a movie that was shot at the Harbor BMX Raceway on Gaffey.
The films cost about $1,000 each so a large garage sale was held which raised over $2,000!
A July 1982 article in the News Pilot said that the Harbor BMX Raceway was only three months old.
It was located on Gaffey near Battery St.
[A search for the facility and whatever happened to it has not been found.]
This article explains that Taper was one of 248 schools in California who received a Distinguished Schools Award and was only one of eight chosen from Los Angeles Unified.
The school had been in the CAP (Capacity Adjustment Program) in which about 120 students from West Vernon High in south central Los Angels were bused to the school. The Distinguished Schools program was only in its second year.
Taper 6th graders on Channel 2's KIDQUIZ
May 2, 1986
[This is a stock photo of the show which ran from 1985 to 1992]
Taper School is one of TWO elementaries competing for national honors in academics.
January 1988 was the announcement, results published in May 1988
The last posting in this blog!
The San Pedro News Pilot digitized issues found on Newspapers.com dried-up in 1988 as the paper didn't have any more issues to scan.
This article tells the story of sixth grader Paul Saker who had won a design award for a float that was in the San Pedro Centennial Parade held on Sunday September 25, 1988 in downtown San Pedro.
Paul got to ride on the 22 foot long float which featured a replica of the Angel's Gate Lighthouse and a fishing boat.
famous quotes:
"I only wish I had lived long enough to see this fabulous blog."
-----Barry Taper
"Me, too"
James Traughber, Taper's first principal
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