On my walk through Chinatown I went to the community park area caled Portsmouth Plaza Park. At the park, there is a plaque describing that this is also the site of the first publc school in California.

In early 1847 a concerned member of the public wrote to a local newspaper complaining that dozens of children were seen playing on the street, with no schooling available to them. This eventually led to the building on this spot of a one room little school that opened in April 1848. It was under public ownership.