Sunset School / Sunset Center Collection

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History of Sunset Center

Sunset School / Sunset Center Collection  Sunset School was a public school founded in 1903. It started as a subscription school of seven students held in the home of Elmer Douglas, on Dolores Street and 7th Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The school moved to another house, then to a lumber company’s office. In 1906, the first Sunset School was built at 9th Avenue and San Carlos Street as a two-room school house. A third room was added sometime before 1915.

In response to the growing City population and the need for permanent classroom buildings, a new Sunset School was constructed on two city blocks bounded by Mission Street & San Carlos Street and 8th & 10th Avenues. The original Tudor Revival style building (1925) was designed by Oakland architect John J. Donovan, who placed the rambling building with two projecting gable ends facing the north end of the site. In 1929, M. J. Murphy designed and constructed primary classroom additions as separate “cottages” located on the northwest corner of Mission Street and 10th Avenue. Today, they are used as office space and adult classrooms. In 1931, a 718-seat auditorium was built for the growing school. This auditorium was sometimes utilized by outside organizations and producers, such as the Carmel Bach Festival. It has a steep pitched side-gabled roof designed by architect Columbus J. Ryland and constructed by M. J. Murphy.

In April 1964, faced with the need for expensive earthquake preparedness improvements and limited space to expand, the Sunset School District opted to sell the school to the City of Carmel for $550,000. The city intended to turn the school into a performing arts center and the transaction was completed in 1965 through the passage of a bond measure. The vote count was 1,330 to 169 in favor.

The school became the Sunset Center and was overseen by the Cultural Commission of Carmel City Council. Appointed in 1966, its first director was an alumnus of the school, the photographer Cole Weston. Weston was succeeded by Dorothy Bowman in 1969, who was replaced by Frank Riley in 1970. The next director of Sunset Center was Richard Tyler, followed by Brian Donoghue in 1990. The 25-year bond was paid off in 1989 and the mortgage ceremoniously burned. The center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Sunset Center underwent a major renovation 2001-2003, in which the original 1931 auditorium was turned into a state-of-the-art performance venue with improved acoustics. 

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