Our Activities & Family Fun section is full of places to go, especially museums. We also discovered two museums in the King City area that look interesting, La Gloria School and the Hays Truck Museum.
La Gloria School was first organized in 1873. Located 5 miles southeast of Gonzales, the schoolhouse was built by local people. The desks were handmade and "the house was plain and not well finished". In 1887 a tax was voted to build the present school. The schoolhouse, outhouses and fences were built for a total of $1,325.
Each year the school was improved with new books, furniture, pictures and a horse shed. Among the improvements was an Estey Organ, purchased by the Trustees in 1895 for $90. Pepper trees lined the schoolyard and three garden plots provided flowers for the schoolroom. A flag pole, built in 1898, stood in the center of the yard.
Like all country schools, La Gloria was the entertainment center for the community. Dinners, exhibitions, and "patriotic entertainment" was often held at the school. In East of Eden John Steinbeck described the role of the country school:
"In the country the repository of art and science was the school, and the schoolteacher shielded and carried the torch of learning and beauty. The schoolhouse was the meeting place for music, for debate. The polls were set in the schoolhouse for elections. Social life whether it was the crowning of a May Queen, the eulogy to a dead president, or an all-night dance, could be held nowhere else."
La Gloria School was closed in the early 1960s. It remained vacant until it was moved to San Lorenzo Park in 1980 to become part of the museum complex.
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The Hays Antique Truck Museum contains one of the largest collections of antique trucks in the United States. The museum was formally established in 1982 by Mr. A.W. Hays, a pioneer and leading figure in the California trucking industry. Retired after fifty years in the trucking business, with "nothing to do," this active 76 year old man began to collect and restore the old trucks you see at the museum today.
The museum's collection includes over 100 different makes of old trucks, representing 94 different manufacturers such as Fageol, Freightliner, Mack, Sterling, Oshkosh, Peterbilt, and the one and only 1916 Breeding Steam Truck. Also on display are trailers, industrial powerplants, tools, equipment, and trucking memorabilia. The museum attracts visitors from around the world and serves as an educational resource for schools and truck historians.
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