A Brief History of the Original "Mitchell School"

Thomas Finley Mitchell was a colonel in the Mexican-American War.  In 1860, he settled in what is now called the Santa Clarita Valley.  He built a miner's shack in Sand Canyon.  Thomas married a woman named Martha Taylor in 1865.  In the same year he replaced the miner's shack with a house made of adobe bricks called the Mitchell Adobe.  The 45 by 60 foot house had a wooden floor, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and the nearest doctor was a two day trip to Los Angeles.  The Mitchell family farmed wheat, corn, fruit, and raised bees on a 1,000 acre ranch.  They used candles, kerosene lamps, and wood for cooking.

In 1872, Martha Mitchell started a school in her kitchen with four of her own children and six other students.  The other students were the children of the neighboring Lang and Stewart families.  They formed the Sulphur Springs School District, the second district in all of Los Angeles County.  Colonel Mitchell built a two story ranch house in 1888.  It was torn down in 1986.  In the same year, the Mitchell Adobe School House was about to be torn down too, but the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society managed to save it and move the remaining bricks to Heritage Junction to be reassembled.