Retired teacher Isabel Contreras Doe and real estate agent Matt Perri, longtime residents of Menlo Park neighborhood, have their hands on historical treasures of the west-side neighborhood.
The treasures include stories, photographs, state-winning poems authored by students and a 48-star American flag that once flew over the former Menlo Park Elementary School, 1100 W. Fresno St.
These treasures and more — to be brought in by residents — will be shared at the school’s centennial celebration on Saturday, Nov. 23, from noon to 5 p.m. in the school’s multipurpose room and patio.
The building now serves as a private school for children with autism operated by the nonprofit Intermountain Centers for Human Development, which is leasing the property from Tucson Unified School District. The TUSD board closed Menlo Park school in 2013 because of low enrollment.
Former students, faculty, area families and the public are invited to share their memories of Menlo Park school. Organizers plan to document oral histories from residents and former students at a later date.
Food trucks providing Mexican dishes, hamburgers, hot dogs and desserts will be at the event, along with music. After the celebration at the school, an after-party will be held in Menlo Park, 325 N. Grande Ave., from 5 to 10 p.m. Alumni musicians performing include members of Retread and the Mark Lopez band. Food, including menudo, tamales and red and green chile burritos, will also be sold.
“Menlo Park Elementary School is at the heart of many, many lives,” said Doe, 72, who moved into the neighborhood with her family in 1953. She recalled her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Reilly, and described her as kind. “She took time to teach me how to read. She had the patience of a saint,” said Doe, recalling the “Dick and Jane” readers series.
She said she is excited to see several of her close friends from school who have said they will attend the celebration.
“I remember growing up in a quiet, close-knit neighborhood in which families knew each other and took care of each other. No one locked their doors or their cars. There were lots of children,” said Doe, a teacher’s aide at the school for several years in the 1970s.
She mentioned the neighborhood as Tucson’s birthplace, near Sentinel Peak — commonly known as “A” Mountain. It was given that name by University of Arizona students in 1916. The area was home to indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and other residents included Spaniards, Catholic priests, Mexican families and Chinese immigrants.
By 1945, the area had deed restrictions preventing non-Anglos from owning homes, and properties with bungalows were occupied by teachers, railroad workers and government employees.
As Doe leafed through a book of 1972 winning poems written by second-graders for a state competition, she broke into a contagious laugh reciting Danny Holguin’s piece:
“Sally made some doughnuts,
She made them by the peck.
One rolled out the window,
And broke a horse’s neck.”
Doe recalled that Danny lived around the corner from her home and he was raised by his grandmother.
Doe enjoyed teaching and felt it was a calling. She enrolled at the University of Arizona and received a bachelor’s degree in 1986, majoring in elementary education. Doe taught 25 years for TUSD, retiring in 2011.
Another organizer of the centennial celebration is Perri, 82, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Tucson in 1945, first living in Barrio Historico. He explained that his mother had died years earlier in Missouri, and his father, an Italian immigrant, came to Tucson because of his asthma. His father married Maria Jesus Salgado, originally from Sonora, Mexico, and his stepmother cared for Perri and his seven siblings.
In 1947, Perri’s family moved into Menlo Park neighborhood when his father bought a two-bedroom brick house west of the Santa Cruz River at North Bonita Avenue and West Alameda Street. “I was 10 years old and there was lots of vacant land, mesquite trees and dirt streets. I took a shorter route to get to school by walking along abandoned pits that were dug for the brickyards,” Perri said.
Among his favorite school memories are choral and dance performances by students and parents attending the shows in the evening. Then there was his sixth-grade teacher, Frances McCray, who taught students to sculpt with clay. She baked their sculptures and inspired students to learn.
Fifth-grade teacher Robert McNerney formed baseball, basketball and football teams and Perri played the sports during recess. McNerney also checked out Western-theme books, and the adventure novel “Treasure Island” from the public library and handed them to Perri to take home to read. “I didn’t get to read the books I wanted, and Mr. McNerney would do this for me,” recalled Perri, tearing up over the caring act displayed by the teacher.
These teachers helped Perri build his self-confidence and after graduation from Tucson High he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961, majoring in business, from the UA.
“I want people to reconnect to the school and to their friends at the celebration,” said Perri. “That school has so many fond memories from our childhood.”
