The History of Millikin
John Millikin, the founder of Millikin, was born in the year of 1807. He came to these lands from New York across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, and finally arrived to the valley of Santa Clara in 1852. He bought 80 acres of land (the corner of El Camino Real and Lawrence Station Road), and these lands were called "Millikan Corners" afterward. Everything he had at that moment was a farm, a saloon and a grocery store.
As for Millikan School, it had been established in 1855 in the founder's honour, and it was the largest among 4 schools of Jefferson School District. Later it was moved to Pomeroy Avenue, and this school turned from a one-roomed cabin into a large building (the original building of the school was damaged by fire in 1920's).
Thanks to Victoria Mariani, Paul Sr. and others, this building was reborn as Napredak Club, a perfect place for youth and adults to take part in different social activities. Millikin School, such as we know it today, was opened in September 1956 (Sonoma Place).
Its campus included 14 classrooms, 3 housing rooms, the office, and the kindergarten. Later, 4 other classrooms and a library were added in 1961, and a cafeteria with a music room were added in 1965.
Millikin remained a neighborhood school until September 1981, when many local schools were closed because of declining enrollment; and Millikin was one of such schools. All its students were split between two other schools - Haman and Pomeroy, and its Basics+ Program had been operating on other campuses for 5 years (two years at Laurelwood School, and three years at Briarwood school as K-6). In 1980 a 7-th grade class and a kindergarten class were added; and in 1981 Millikin became a K-6 school, moving the 6-th grade to middle school in 1985.
Other changes and transformations of Millikin School include:
- 1979 - the library moved to Room 7 from Room 13.
- 1979 - the cafeteria was transformed from a music room to office.
- 1988 - the computer class was added.
- 1995 - remodeling of the playground.
- 1997-1998 - the campus gets three new portable classrooms.
- 1998 - the office was remodeled.
- 1998 - remodeling of the kindergarten.
A big thank to Nancy Tucker, Jim Hurley, and F. A. Yamashita for the contributions to our web page!