Oakland Tribune - Thurs - Aug. 23, 1951

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A relic of the days when Piedmont was an area of barren rolling hills and when the cows outnumbered the people will soon fade ingto history. The oldest building in the city – and the first school house – is about to be torn down.

 

The structure, a tiny one-room unit, was built in 1875 to serve as the office of the architect that bult the estate of the late Isaac Requa, onetime president of the Oakland Bank of Savings, who made a fortune in the mine of Virginia City, Nev., before he brought his family to this community.  It was the fourth building here. The others since have been razed.

 

USED AS A SCHOOL

After the construction of the Requa mansion, which was torn down in 1925, the tiny building served as a playroom and school room for three generations of Requa’s descendants – his children, Amy Requa and the late Mark L Requa; his grandchildren, Amy and Sally Long, and his great-grandchildren, Cherie and Charles Sutton.

 

It was in this building that the Requa;s descendants received their education from a private tutor- there was no school within miles of the estate in those days. It was from here that Mark went on to become prominent in national and international affairs. At one time Republican National Committeeman from California, he is generally regarded as having been the person who swung the Republican presidential nomination to his friend, Herbert Hoover, in 1928.