BALBOA SCHOOL HABS No. CZ-7 (Balboa Elementary School

BALBOA SCHOOL (Balboa Elementary School) North-east end of El Prado Balboa Former Panama Canal Zone Republic of Panama

PHOTOGRAPHS

WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY Rocky Mountain Regional Off ice

National Park Service Department of the Interior

12795 W. Alameda Parkway Denver, Colorado 80225

HABS No. CZ-7

Location:

Present Owner:

Original Use:

Present Use:

Significance:

HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY

BALBOA SCHOOL (Balboa Elementary School) HABS No. CZ-7

North-east end of El Prado, Balboa, Former Canal Zone, Republic of Panama

United States Department of Defense

Grammar and High School

Elementary School

Balboa School is an excellent example of a modified Italian Renaissance design. Its massing is symmetrical and the front entrance is marked by a loggia, both typical of the style. Italian Renaissance architecture was popular for landmarks in metropolitan areas between the years 1890 and 193 5. Circulation space for the school is arranged around an interior court, arched on the first floor, and columned on the second and third. Historically, the building was constructed as a school for grammar school grades and a high school division. It continues to serve its educational function today as a grade school.

PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION:

A Physical History:

1. Original Construction Date: June, 191 7

2. Architect: Samuel M. Hitt

BALBOA SCHOOL (Balboa Elementary School)

HABS No. CZ-7 (Page 2)

3. Original and subsequent owners: The Panama Canal Company, United States Department of Defense

4. Builders. Contractors and Suppliers: The Panama Canal Department of Operations and Maintenance, Building Division, Balboa Heights

5. Original plans and construction: The building retains its essential original exterior appearance and building footprint since its completion in 1917. The first and second floors were originally for grammar school grades, including principal and teacher spaces, as well as a library and librarian's room. Post-1943 uses include a kindergarten and an office for the school physician. The third floor contained the high school division, including classrooms, a science laboratory and study, and a larger assembly room. When the high school moved to its own building in 1943, the third floor housed offices for the Division of Schools, physical education and recreation sections, and Boy and Girl Scout offices. The open air lunchroom over the entrance loggia was considered an innovation for its time. Its subsequent enclosure and the addition of third floor classrooms directly above the lunchroom are notable modifications to the exterior. Interior modifications have substantially altered the original appearance of most spaces in the building except for the courtyard and occasional utility rooms. The original plan of first and second floors is more or less intact, yet the third floor has been altered extensively. Most of the interior class and office spaces have contemporary materials covering or replacing the original finishes. One original pair of five-panel wood doors remains, while all others have been replaced. Rest rooms retain most of their original fixtures, while janitor closets retain all of their original fixtures and finishes. The front entry hall and courtyard depict the 1917 interior character of the building. Open air musical programs were performed in this unique setting.

6. Alterations and Additions:

a. Exterior: The most apparent alteration on the exterior is the replacement of the original eight-light windows. They were superseded by a four-light steel awning type, with blocked transoms. The original semi-circular sashes of the first floor center block were replaced with louvered windows, and the arched part of each



opening was blocked with permanent construction. Other window panels near the stairwells and at the rear of the building have been blocked as well. Meshes were later added to some exterior windows for security. Also readily apparent are the school bus and pedestrian canopy additions. A free-standing concrete block mechanical enclosure was later constructed to the northeast of the building. Here, some equipment is exposed as it goes from the school to the addition. The second floor open-air lunchroom was enclosed, and now serves as a media center. Its original outside and intermediate columns, and courtyard half-wall are still evident from inside the addition. Sometime later, the media center was topped by a classroom addition on the third floor. A gutter and downspout system was added at this new construction and at the courtyard. Six-light, one-panel doors at the side porches were eventually replaced by metal doors with transoms.

b. Interior: The interior of the building has undergone substantial remodeling. The building retains the courtyard plan original to its construction, but the original lighting and finish materials are largely replaced with contemporary treatments. Dropped acoustical tile ceilings with recessed fluorescent lighting fixtures obscure or replace the original ceilings. This treatment alters the original character of the space by lowering the ceiling level. This was most likely done to accommodate the installation of air conditioning in 1965. Carpet or vinyl flooring covers the original wood floors. Ceramic tile walls and wainscots at the rest rooms are all replacement finishes. All interior wood frame partitions are later additions. In 1993 a major remodeling of the air conditioning system took place. This may have coincided with the construction of two mechanical closets added in the third floor corridor. Original slate blackboards have been replaced in some classrooms.

B. Historical Context:

Early Explorations of Water and Land Routes

While the Panama Canal and the surrounding Canal Zone are most frequently associated with the United States, interest in building or discovering a waterway to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the Isthmus of Panama began centuries ago. Christopher Columbus searched for such a waterway in his final voyage, as did Vasco de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513, and Mexican explorer Hernando Cortez in the 1520s, before the development of projects for



artificial passages through the Isthmus had begun. 1 In 1533 the Chagres River was made navigable to within twenty miles of Panama City at V enta de Cruces, meaning 11the crossing." The eighteen-mile Las Cruces Trail provided access the rest of the way to the Pacific. 2

King Charles V of Spain made the first official act towards construction of a canal in 1534, when he had a survey made of the land from the end of the Chagres River to the Pacific, which is the route of the Panama Canal today. In 1534, however, Pascual de Andagoya, the commissioner who made the survey, said there were too many obstacles for even the vast resources of the powerful king to consider building a canal. 3

During this time Spain conquered Peru, and Charles needed to transfer gold and other precious valuable metals through the Isthmus. The Las Cruces Trail became the most popular route. Much of this trail was built over swamps and had to be filled in with rocks carried several miles by Black slaves. When it was finished, it was wide enough to accommodate two carts. The Spaniards sent boats down the Atlantic and into the Chagres as far as Cruces where the trail crossed the river. There they would receive the treasure brought in carts, on pack mules, or by slaves, and take it back to the Atlantic harbor at Nombre de Dios.

In 1536, a trading post was built at Venta de Cruces, along with a wharf and a warehouse. Cruces became the largest and most important village in the interior of the Isthmus. Throughout the sixteenth century, transit was often halted by cimarrones (runaway Negro slaves). To protect traffic on the Chagres, Spain built Fort San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River, a fortress at the entrance to the Nombre de Dios harbor, and a fortification at Venta de Cruces by 1597. The Las Cruces Trail was paved by 1630, and Spain continued to grow richer and more powerful

1Hugh Gordon Miller, The Isthmian Highway: A Review of the Problems of the Caribbean, (New York: MacMillan Co., 1929), 7; John 0. Collins, The Panama Guide, (Mount Hope, CZ: I.C.C. Press, 1912), 57.

2John and Mavis Biesanz, The People of Panama, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), 25; Miller, The Isthmian Highway, 7; Collins, The Panama Guide, 57.

3Miller, The Isthmian Highway, 7; Collins, The Panama Guide, 57; Miles P. Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay: The Story of the Long Struggle for a Waterway Across the American Isthmus, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1940), 6.

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in the New World. Panama became the crossing place for trade routes from China, Japan, and India as well as South America. 4

Spain and Britain Fight for Isthmian Control

Despite the negative reports of the 1534 survey, Charles V was still interested in building a canal. There were four major routes under consideration -- Panama, Nicaragua, Darien (southeast of Panama), and Tehuantepec (Mexico). Spanish historian Francisco Lopez de Gomara supported his king, and wrote in 1552 that any of the four sites would be beneficial to supplying a trade route to the Indies. Portugese navigator Antonio Galvao also published a book expressing his interest in digging a canal at any of the four sites. 5

Charles V abdicated the throne in 1555, and his son and successor, Philip II opposed to the idea of a canal. Although he did order a survey in 1567 to consider the possibility of a canal through Nicaragua, via the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, the report was as unfavorable as the Panama survey, and plans for a canal were abandoned. Philip believed the Isthmus served as protection for Spanish shipping on the Pacific. The opening of a canal would encourage other countries to compete for its possession. Philip increased the tolls through the Isthmus, and it became the only legal means of transit for goods from Argentina and the Philippines. Although Spain temporarily had to use Nicaragua when English explorer Francis Drake invaded the Pacific in 1579 and interfered with the Panama route, Philip maintained this policy until his death in 1598, even saying that a canal would directly violate the laws of God, who had created the Isthmus as it was. Although his successor, Philip III, considered a canal route via the Gulf of Darien and the Atrato River in 1616, the project was quickly disbanded, and the policy of Philip II was firmly entrenched in Spain for the next two hundred years. 6

British explorers and pirates continued to raid Spanish ships and territories in the 1600s, for mahogany wood as well as gold and silver. Oliver Cromwell conquered Jamaica in 1655.

4 Susie Pearl Core, Trails of Progress, or the Story of Panama and its Canal, (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1925), 24-26; Gerstle Mack, The Land Divided: A History of the Panama Canal and Other Isthmian Canal Projects, (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1944), 53-55; U.S. Department of State, Final Environmental Impact Statement for the New Panama Canal Treaties, (Washington, D. C.: GPO, December 1977), Appendix, G.14.

5Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 6-7.

6DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 7-8; Miller, The Isthmian Highway, 8; Core, Trails of Progress, 28, 82; Collins, The Panama Guide, 109; Biesanz, People of Panama, 28-29.



Edward Hume led an expedition across the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua and took Fort San Carlos and the city of Leon. Here the British first realized the significance of Lake Nicaragua as a potential canal route, and sought to gain control of it. When Spain began counterattacks in that area, Britain moved south again. In 1671, Sir Henry Morgan conquered Porto Bello, which had replaced Nombre de Dios as the main Atlantic port, and also destroyed the city of Panama. To temporarily prevent further aggression, the countries negotiated a treaty which included an article giving the King of England a right to retain forever "any part of America" then in possession of his subjects. This greatly increased Britain's log-cutting trade in Central America, and gained them an alliance with the Miskito Indians, who had been treated cruelly by the Spanish. The area where this tribe was located, between the San Juan River and Cape Honduras, became known as the Mosquito Coast. 7

Initial Interest from America and France

Panama was in a state of decline in the eighteenth century. Although the city of Panama was rebuilt, it ceased to be the main trade route for Spanish treasure. Heavy taxes prevented trade with other colonies and discouraged industry and agriculture, attacks from runaway slaves continued, and many left for better climates. France made its initial survey of a potential canal in 1735, sending astronomer Charles Maire de la Condamine on a scientific expedition to Quito. Returning to France in 1740, Condamine said a canal at Nicaragua would be practical, but nothing was done. 8

In the Treaty of 1763, Britain agreed to abolish its fortifications in the Honduras Bay area and most of the Spanish territories of Central America. However, with the help of the Indians, who had never been conquered by Spain, the British continued to control the Mosquito Coast, including the mouth of the San Juan River. British hostility in Central America caused Spain to help the colonists in the Revolutionary War, while continuing to fight for the Mosquito area. Under Captain Horatio Nelson, the British set sail from Jamaica and reached the San Juan River on 24 March 1780. They captured several Spanish outposts before tropical rains, fevers, and prostrating diseases took their toll on the men. After Britain was defeated in the American Revolution, Spain was determined to drive them out of the Mosquito Coast. On 14 July 1786, in a treaty signed at London, Britain agreed to get out of the Mosquito Coast. They kept their

7Mary W. Williams, Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy, 1815-1915, (Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1916), 4; DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 9, 12-13; Biesanz, People of Panama, 29-31.

8Biesanz, People of Panama, 32-33; Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 12.



woodcutting area in Belize, but were not to engage in other businesses; however, they secretly continued to conduct business with the Miskitos.

American interest in the canal dates back to 1779, when diplomat Benjamin Franklin, while in France, received a letter from French peasant Pierre-Andre Gargaz, who was in prison at the time, asking Franklin to read his manuscript on building canals at Panama and Suez. The canals would reduce the global circumnavigation time from three years to ten months, and establish beneficial trade and money circulation between many different nations. Franklin was so impressed with the manuscript, entitled "A Project for Universal Peace," that when Gargaz was released from prison in 1781, Franklin printed and provided him with a desired number of copies for distribution in France. Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded Franklin as U.S. Minister in Paris, also read Gargaz's manuscript, along with other sources on canal plans. He wrote two letters to Spanish Minister William Carmichael in 1787 and 1788 expressing his interest in obtaining copies of the surveys and reports made on the Isthrnus. 9

Revival Under Humboldt

Fresh new interest in the canal was revived early in the nineteenth century by German explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt explored Spanish America from Peru to Mexico in the years 1799 to 1804. In his Political Essay on the Kingdom ofNew Spain, published in 1808, he criticized the Panama route, though he never saw it, because of its high mountains, and said that Nicaragua, with its vast water supply, would be the best route. At the end of his travels, Humboldt likely discussed the canal with President Jefferson, whom he visited at the White House in 1804. His trip coincided with the journey of Lewis and Clark, whom Jefferson ordered to seek a northwest passage to the Pacific, a route Humboldt also strongly endorsed.

Spain's final chance for a canal came in 1814 when the government endorsed the Nicaraguan route, and a formation of a company to start work. However, revolutionary movements by its colonies ended Spanish hopes for a canal. In 1819, under President Simon Bolivar, the Republic of Colombia, then called New Granada, was founded. Venezuela and Ecuador soon followed, and those countries took over the Isthmian territory in 1823, under the name Central American Confederation. 10

9Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 13-19.

10David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal. 1870-1914, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), 28-30; Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 21-23.



The Granadan Confederation was interested in building a canal, and proposed Nicaragua and Panama projects with the U.S. in 1825 and 1826. Aaron Palmer ofNew York agreed to build a canal, but could not get the necessary funding. Bolivar tried to do the project himself, with assistance from French, British, and English engineers, but was unsuccessful. The Granadan Confederation disbanded in 1831, with New Granada retaining the rights to Panama. The Dutch failed in their only attempt to build a canal at this time as well.

American John Lloyd Stephens passed through Nicaragua in 1840 while exploring Mexico, and said Nicaragua would be the perfect place to build a canal, with a cost of $25 million. He called it "an enchanting land of blue lakes and trade winds, towering volcanic mountains, rolling green savannas and grazing cattle. "11

France became interested in the Panama route by way of the Chagres River in 1838, when New Granada granted the French firm of Augustin Salomon a contract to construct a road or canal across the Isthmus. Humboldt even wrote to Salomon in 1842, expressing his disappointment that a route had still not been firmly established. French engineer Napoleon Garella was sent to Panama for further study in 1843, and recommended an entrance at Limon Bay, again with a cost of $25 million. While the survey was positive, the cost was too high, and New Granada canceled the contract. Mexico's government made investigations for the Tehuantepec route in 1824 and 1842, using combinations of a canal, carriage road, or railroad. But these plans failed, like all the others in the early half of the nineteenth century, either through lack of money, or lack of foresight by people in charge of the surveys. 12

Gold and the Panama Railroad

The U.S. took the next initiative in the battle for the Isthmus under the administration of President James Polk. Polk's Minister to Central America, Benjamin Bidlack, negotiated a treaty on his own in 1846, in which New Granada guaranteed the U.S. exclusive right of transit across the Isthmus in exchange for New Granada's right of sovereignty there. The treaty was finally ratified in 1848.

Another incident occurred in 1848 that drastically changed the course of Panamanian as well as American history. Gold was discovered in California, and by 1849, thousands of men were crossing the Isthmus every year to seek their fortune. On one hand there was boiling heat and blinding rain. The Chagres was filled with heavy green slime, and the Las Cruces Trail was

11McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 32.

12McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 30-32; DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 23-33.



covered with mud. Huts were infested with bugs, and fever, cholera, and dysentery were common. Despite this, many were thrilled with the spectacle of the jungle and the brilliant green mountains. The distance saved by traveling from New York to San Francisco using the Isthmus instead of Cape Hom was eight thousand miles. 13

The U.S. Congress selected a committee to travel to the Isthmus in 1849. They recommended construction of a railroad, with eventual plans for a canal. On 12 June, the Panama Railroad Company was founded, under the direction of John Lloyd Stephens, who had earlier traveled to Nicaragua, William Henry Aspinwall, and Henry Chauncey. Construction began in 1850, and was finished in 185 5 at a cost of $8 million, six times higher than estimated. Almost six thousand workers died, including Stephens in 1852. But the first transcontinental railroad, at forty-seven and a half miles long, was an instant financial windfall. Profits in the first six years of operation exceeded $7 million. At $295 a share, the Panama Railroad was the highest-priced stock on the New York Exchange. Over 400,000 people used the railroad in the first ten years. 14

The United States and England nearly went to war over the Nicaragua route. In 1848, Britain took San Juan Del Norte, at the mouth of the San Juan River, and renamed it Greytown. The U.S. considered this a violation of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which considered any European expansion in the Western Hemisphere a threat to American safety and security. A crisis was avoided by a treaty binding the two countries to joint control of any canal built in Central America. The Clayton-Bulwar Treaty, named after U.S. Secretary of State John Clayton and British envoy Sir Henry Lytton Bulwar, was signed in 1850. 15

U.S. Progress Towards a Canal

The U.S. Senate on 19 March 1866, resolved the Secretary of the Navy to supply a study of all practical lines of ship canals over the Isthmus. Rear Admiral C.H. Davis reported that Darien was the site to be pursued. In 1869, General Ulysses Grant became President. Grant had traveled through the Isthmus in 1852 while in the Army, and realized its value. Beginning with Navy Commander Thomas 0. Selfridge, who led a survey to Darien, Grant ordered seven Central American expeditions between 1870 and 1875. In 1872, Grant appointed the first U.S. Isthmian Canal Commission, which recommended Nicaragua as the ideal route in 1876. Grant's successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, in a speech to Congress on 8 March 1880, declared, "The policy of this

13McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 34.

14McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 33-37; Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 35-39.

15McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 38; Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 61-62, 460-464.



country is a canal under American control. The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power, or any combination of European powers. "16

Navy Secretary, William E. Chandler ordered A.G. Menocal to survey Nicaragua on 15 December 1884. Menocal recommended a total of seven locks and a canal length of 169 miles. In 1887, the Nicaraguan government gave the Nicaragua Canal Commission of New York a concession to began canal excavation. Two years later, the U.S. Congress incorporated the group with the Maritime Canal Company ofNicaragua. Construction began at Greytown on 8 June 1890. But despite initial success, funds were exhausted in three years, and the project was terminated.

Under Ferdinand de Lesseps, who played a large role in building the Suez Canal in 1869, France had begun building a canal at Panama in 1881. This project would fail by 1889, when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that would look with disapproval on any European government trying to construct a canal across Central America.

Congress and President William McKinley continued to thoroughly investigate canal possibilities in Panama and Nicaragua. They also were involved in a diplomatic dispute with Great Britain over Isthmian territory. British Ambassador Sir Julian Pauceforte and Secretary of State John Hay signed a treaty in 1900 that gave the U.S. the right to construct, own, and operate, but not fortify, a canal. This treaty was rejected by Congress, and Hay was forced to renegotiate. On 18 November 1901, a new Hay-Pauceforte Treaty was signed, which removed the constraints of the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty of 1850, and gave the U.S. full authority to defend and govern a canal. 17

Roosevelt and the Panamanian Revolution

In September 1901 McKinley was assassinated, and Theodore Roosevelt became President. To Roosevelt, the canal was indispensable, a vital path to the global destiny of the U.S. for the twentieth century. He saw the canal linking American commanding power on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During the first Hay-Pauceforte negotiations, while still Governor of New York, Roosevelt wrote to Hay expressing his concern that the treaty did not give the U.S. fortification rights, and that it violated the Monroe Doctrine. While the Isthmian Canal Commission

16McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 19-20, 27; Du Val, Cadiz to Cathay, 71-75, 78-80; U.S. Senate, A Chronology of Events Relating to the Panama Canal: Prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977), 2, hereafter "U.S. Senate, Chronology."

17DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 83-85, 102, 107, 110-121, 465-467; McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 52-53, 131, 256-259; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 2; Logan Marshall, The Story of the Panama Canal, (New York: L.T. Myers, 1913), 202.



recommended the Nicaragua route in November 1901, the French New Panama Canal Company agreed to sell its assets for $40 million, and the Commission changed its support to Panama two months later. In 1903, the U.S. signed the Hay-Herran Treaty, negotiated between Hay and Dr. Tomas Herran, Colombian Minister to the U.S., that would have granted the U.S. a 100-year lease on a zone ofland ten miles wide to build a Panama Canal. This treaty was rejected by the Colombian Senate, however, because it threatened Colombian sovereignty. 18

Another way to ensure construction of the canal would be the establishment of an independent Panama. Dr. Manual Amador Guererro and several associates were involved in plotting the course of a Panamanian Revolution. Amador had been elected President of the State of Panama in 1867, then was a doctor at the Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City and for the Panama Railroad Company. He witnessed a number of revolutionary attempts in Colombia in the late 1800s, and perceived that Panama was ready to seek independence. French engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla worked under de Lesseps, and in 1885 was briefly Director General of the French canal effort. He made it his lifelong goal to build a sea-level canal at Panama. By the early years of the new century, he was actively involved in Washington, DC diplomatic circles and was advocating an independent Panama. 19

On 3 November 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. The American ship Nashville, along with United States forces on both sides of the Isthmus, acted to protect the Panama Railroad as was their right according to the 1846 Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty. Colombian troops at Colon were prevented from marching to Panama City along this route. With no intervention by Colombian troops, the revolution succeeded and three days later the United States formally recognized the new republic. On 18 November, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty granted the United States "in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control" of a ten-mile wide area ofland across the Isthmus to construct and defend a canal, with "all the rights, power and authority within the zone ... which the United States would possess and exercise if it were the sovereign of the territory. "20 The United States agreed to pay the Republic of Panama $10 million in

18DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 116, 119-121, 148, 174-175, 468-481; McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 246-247, 250, 257, 269; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 2-3.

19McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 341, 276-278.

20DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 124, 130-131, 138-140, 333-340, 482-492; McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 341-342, 371-377; U.S. Senate, Chronology. 3; Joseph Bucklin Bishop and Farnham Bishop, Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal, (New York and London: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1930), 117-119.



compensation, and an annuity of$250,000 per year after the canal was completed. No Panamanian signed this treaty.

After the Senate ratified the treaty in February 1904, Bunau-Varilla resigned as Minister Plenipotentiary to Panama and returned to France. For him, the treaty was especially gratifying. Along with Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, he had been the strongest advocate of the Panama route. Panama would be 134.5 miles shorter than Nicaragua; it would take less time, twelve hours to thirty-three, to pass through. It had better harbors, required fewer locks, and would cost less. The majority of engineers supported Panama. There were also concerns about the presence of volcanos near the Nicaraguan route. These concerns finalized the decision to build at Panama in June 1902, which were further solidified by the Revolution. 21

Building the Canal

The French property on the Isthmus was officially turned over to the United States on 4 May 1904. The cities of Colon and Panama were in the Republic, but outside the Canal Zone (Figure 1). Rear Admiral John G. Walker, retired officer of the Navy, was made chairman of the sevenmember Isthmian Canal Commission appointed by President Roosevelt. This Federal agency was responsible for the construction of the Panama Canal, reporting directly to the Secretary of War and the President of the United States. Major-General George Davis became Governor of the Canal Zone. John Wallace was Chief Engineer, and Dr. William Gorgas was the Chief Sanitation Officer. The Commission did not work well together, however, and on 1 April 1905, President Roosevelt directed the Commission Chairman, Chief Engineer, and Canal Zone Governor to constitute an executive committee. In July, Wallace resigned and was replaced by John Stevens. Stevens had been recommended by James T. Hill of Minnesota, for whom he worked as a railroad engineer in 1889.22

Stevens moved the administration offices from Panama City to the Culebra Cut, where the largest excavation work was done. Under Wallace, working conditions had deteriorated, and Stevens' first task was cleaning up. He supported Gorgas, whose theory on yellow fever was that it was caused by mosquitoes, by giving him four thousand workers and an unlimited budget for supplies.

21DuVal, Cadiz to Cathay, 418-419; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 4; McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 322-324.

22McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 407, 421, 449, 457, 459; Suzanne Johnson, "An American Legacy in Panama: A Brief History of the Department of Defense Installations and Properties, The Former Canal Zone, Republic of Panama," (Corozal, Panama: Directorate of Engineering and Housing, United States Army Garrison-Panama, 1995), 12.

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The cities of Panama and Colon were fumigated house by house, provided with running water, and streets were cleaned and paved. Entire new communities were established. The yellow fever epidemic was stopped by the end of 1905, but workers were still suffering and dying from malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and intestinal diseases. Once the yellow fever was contained, Stevens resumed construction. The Panama railroad was essential for transporting dirt, and he devised an elaborate double-tracking plan for dirt trains to be constantly moving in and out of the Culebra Cut. By the end of 1906, there were almost 24,000 workers. White Americans made up the bulk of the skilled laborers, averaging a salary of $87 per month. Unskilled laborers, most of whom were Blacks from the Caribbean Islands, were paid ten cents an hour, and worked ten-hour days. 23

The next decision was the type of canal to be built, sea-level or lock. The sea-level was originally planned, but Stevens was concerned that it would cost $100 million dollars more and take three or four years longer to build. A lock passage would be wider and safer for ships. The lock proposal was recommended by the Commission in February, approved by the President, and approved by Congress in June. There would be a dam for the Chagres River built at Gatun, nearly a mile and a half long and over a hundred feet high. The lake would be eighty-five feet high. A ship would enter three locks built at the east end of the dam, elevate to the level of the lake, travel twenty-three miles across the lake, then nine miles through the Culebra Cut. At Pedro Miguel there would be a lock and small dam. The ship would be lowered thirty-one feet to a small lake, pass through two locks at La Boca, return to sea-level and head into the Pacific Ocean. With the creation of Gatun Lake, 164 square miles of jungle would be under water, and a new railroad would have to be built. 24

In November 1906, Roosevelt traveled to Panama, becoming the first president to leave the United States while in office. At this time 6,000 Americans were working in the Zone. Roosevelt was impressed by the progress on the Culebra Cut, and the progress in health and sanitation. Although he went at the rainiest time of the year, he admired the natural beauty of the tropical land. After his return, he wrote the "Special Message Concerning the Panama Canal" to Congress, including photographs and sketches, and urged the country to take notice. "It is a stupendous work upon which our fellow countrymen are engaged in down there on the Isthmus,"

23Bishop and Bishop, Goethals, 125-128~ McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 448, 457-473, 480.

24McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 483-489.



he said. "No man can see these young, vigorous men energetically doing their duty without a thrill of pride ... "25

However, by February 1907, within a few weeks of each other, Stevens and Commission Chairman Theodore Shonts resigned. Secretary of War William Howard Taft recommended Major George Washington Goethals to replace Stevens. He was officially approved on 18 February 1907 and given complete authority. Goethals came from West Point and the Corps of Engineers, where he was assistant to the Chief of Engineers, and became a member of the General Staff under Secretary Elihu Root in 1903.

By the end of his first year, several important engineering changes has been made. The bottom of the channel of the Culebra Cut was widened from two hundred to three hundred feet. The lock chambers were enlarged from 95 to 110 feet. A breakwater was planned for the Pacific side to prevent mud from clogging entrance to the Canal. The dam and second set of locks were pulled from Sosa Hill and moved to Miraflores, farther away from the Pacific. The Pacific locks would then be better prepared for a sea attack. Goethals had chiefs running three geographic units, the Atlantic, Central, and Pacific Divisions. He estimated the new railroad would take five years and cost $9 million. Lieutenant Colonel Harry Foote Hodges was in charge of designing the locks, and was Goethals' second-in-command. 26

The struggle to dig the Culebra Cut lasted seven years. The most difficult setbacks were the mudslides, particularly at Cucaracha on the east bank. In October 1907, after heavy rains, an avalanche deposited 500,000 cubic yards of mud in the canal. After 1911, when the Cut was deeper and rock formations became unstable, slides were more frequent. Shovels, trains, tracks, and cars would be completely buried. In 1912, four and a half months were spent removing slides. Thirty buildings from the town of Culebra had to be moved back from the rim. The uppermost portions of the Cut were dug at an angle to help decrease the pressure. The workers referred to the Cut as "Hell's Gorge. "27

Work on the locks began in 1909 and took about four years. The bases of the lock chambers were concrete, with steel gates. The walls were a thousand feet long and eighty feet high. Six pairs of chambers were built (to handle two lanes of traffic). Gates were opened and closed by

25Ibid., 492-493, 498-500.

26Bishop and Bishop, Goethals, 137-141, 153-156, 193, 204, 211-12; McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 503-511, 539-543.

27McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 549-554; Bishop and Bishop, Goethals, 207-209.


HABSNo. CZ-7 (Page 16)

steel struts connected to "bull wheels" twenty feet in diameter, which were geared to an electric motor. The locks were controlled by a central control board.

By the summer of 1913, the locks and the Cut were finished. On 26 September at Gatun, water was first turned into the locks. On 10 October, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in Washington that carried to Panama to blow up the Gamboa Dike and fill the Culebra Cut. In 1914, Wilson disbanded the Isthmian Canal Commission, and named Goethals the first Governor of The Panama Canal. On August 15, in a small ceremony, the Canal opened when the ship Ancon successfully passed through. 28

From 1904 to its opening, the Canal had cost $352 million, and 5,609 workers died. The United States also agreed to pay Colombia $25 million over disputes from the Panama Revolution, and allowed certain Colombian ships free transit. Normal tolls for the Canal were ninety cents per cargo ton. In September of 1915, an avalanche in the Culebra Cut (renamed the Gaillard Cut after Lieutenant Colonel David Gaillard, who served as Chief of the Central Division under Goethals) closed the Canal for seven months. World War I in Europe dampened enthusiasm for the Canal in the first few years, but by 1924, the Canal was handling more than five thousand ships per year. Its creation has to be considered one of mankind's greatest accomplishments.29

Treaties and Rights

The Hay-Pauceforte and Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaties implied but did not specifically give the United States the right to fortify the Canal Zone. Central to America's decision to fortify was Article Three of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty, which gave the United States all powers, rights, and authority in the Zone. Panama protested in 1904 when the United States government used this sovereignty in establishing ports of entry, customhouses, tariffs, and post offices in the Zone. An amendment giving some concessions to Panama in those areas was made after Secretary of War Taft, George Goethals, and other Army leaders visited the Isthmus in November 1904 to determine questions relating to possible fortifications. The amendment was supposed to be in effect only during the construction period, but it lasted until 1924, and efforts for a new treaty were unsuccessful.

28McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 594-599, 604-609; Bishop and Bishop, Goethals, 260-264; Mack, The Land Divided, 513; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 5.

29McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 610-614; Bishop and Bishop, Goethals, 267-268; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 5.



The Hull-Alfaro Treaty, signed on 2 March 1936, helped settle differences over the devaluing Panama dollar regarding the Canal annuity payments. The new treaty guaranteed joint action and consultation between the two countries in times of emergency. The United States also gave up the right to intervene in Panama to maintain public order. After debate in the United States that it did not adequately protect American interests in the Canal area, the Senate finally ratified it three years later. 30

During World War II, the United States was convinced that in addition to the existing installations in the Canal Zone, they needed more defense sites and airfields in the Republic of Panama. On 18 May 1942, the two countries signed the Defense Sites Agreement, in which the United States would build 134 bases leased from Panama to use until one year after the end of the war. The United States agreed to pay Panama $20 million in addition to the annual rent for American forces in Panama. In October 1947, the United States tried to negotiate an agreement for continued occupation of thirteen sites for five more years, and the military air base at Rio Hato, seventy miles west of Panama City, for ten to twenty years. Two months later, with pressure from the Communist Party in Panama and student anti-American demonstrations going on, the Panamanian Assembly unanimously rejected the agreement, and the United States agreed to evacuate the remaining fourteen sites immediately, while continuing to negotiate. With national elections coming up in 1948, members wanted to reduce American influence in Panama as much as possible to appease the voters. 31

In the 1950s, the United States made several concessions to the Panamanians: a single pay scale for American and Panamanian workers was established, Panama was allowed to fly its flag along with the American flag at several predetermined locations in the Zone and on ships traveling through the Canal, Spanish became an official language in the Zone along with English, and Panama was given more money for Canal toll collections. The United States was given 19,000 acres in the Rio Hato area for military training. Panama, however, twice rejected requests by the

30U.S. Senate, Background Documents Relating to the Panama Canal. Committee on Foreign Relations, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977), 972-975, hereafter cited as U.S. Senate, Background Documents; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 4-5.

31U.S. Senate, Background Documents, 921-923, 975-979; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 6; Almon R Wright, "Defense Sites Negotiations between the United States and Panama, 1936-1948," Department of State Bulletin, vol. 27, 11 August 1952, 212-217; Paul Ryan, The Panama Controversy: U.S. Diplomacy and Defense Interests, (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1977), 28-31; Paolo E. Coletta, ed., United States NayY and Marine Corps Bases Overseas, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 259; Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC, Operational Archives.



U.S. to deploy Nike missiles in 1956 and 1958. Student demonstrations in 1955, 1958, 1959, and 1964 finally convinced the United States to renegotiate the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty.32

In 1974, the United States, under chief negotiator Ellsworth Bunker, agreed in principle to give the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone back to Panama. During the administrations of President Jimmy Carter and General Omar Torrijos, two treaties were negotiated. The first, called the Panama Canal Treaty, would abolish the Panama Canal Zone and return the territory to Panama, with the United States having the authority to operate and defend the Canal until 31 December 1999. The second treaty gave the United States the permanent right to defend the neutrality of the Canal even if their number of troops and bases were reduced. The treaties were signed on 7 September 1977. After months of heated debate, the United States passed the two treaties in March and April 1978, each by a vote of 68 to 32, drastically changing American military and political influence in Panama. 33

Construction for Canal Zone Communities

From the beginning of the Canal project, ancillary construction was necessary to provide for the social and business needs of the enterprise. Housing, offices, health care facilities, recreational facilities, retail establishments, public safety; all aspects oflife represented some need for shelter. The Federal agency responsible for construction of the Canal also provided for the building needs. During construction of the Canal, this agency was the Isthmian Canal Commission. Upon completion of the Canal in 1914, this agency was disbanded on 1 April, and The Panama Canal was created to operate and maintain the Canal and administer the Canal Zone. In 1951, the agency was reorganized as the Panama Canal Company, and remained as such until the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977. Upon treaty implementation, the Panama Canal Company was disestablished and replaced by the Panama Canal Commission, a joint U. S.-Panamanian agency primarily concerned only with ship passage through the Canal. This administrative body will

32U.S. Senate, Chronology, 7-9; U.S. House, Panama Canal. 1971: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1971), 18, 30-31, 35-37, 114; Herbert and Mary Knapp, Red, White. and Blue Paradise: The American Canal Zone in Panama, (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1984), 54-59; William Jorden, Panama Odyssey, (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984), 38-49; Coletta, Nayy and Marine Corps Bases Overseas, 259-260.

33U.S. Senate, Chronology, 9-36; U.S. Senate, Defense, Maintenance and Operation of the Panama Canal, Including Administration and Government of the Canal Zone -- Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1978), 62-63, 83-84, 139, 164-165, 258-259; Coletta, Nayy and Marine Corps Bases Overseas, 260-261.



remain in place until the end of the U.S. presence in Panama on 31 December 1999. The schools, hospitals, and commissaries run by the Panama Canal Company were transferred to the Department of Defense. 34

Every aspect of life for the employees of the ICC (and the later administrative organizations) was defined by their status. A system of racial discrimination prevailed which recognized two main classes of employees based upon the standard used for their pay. "Gold" employees were skilled workers (almost always white Americans), and "silver" employees who provided unskilled labor and were predominantly black West Indians. These distinctions effectively segregated the work force and their families. In some cases separate, but definitely not equal, facilities were built for both groups, and separate waiting lines were established for shopping. Hospital wards were separated by race, and the children of "gold" and "silver" employees went to different schools. The "silver" construction towns provided crude, common barracks and mess facilities for workers, as well as a few family quarters. As a result, the majority of "silver" married workers had to rely upon renting tenements in Colon or Panama City, or simply setting up slums in the jungle with scavenged materials. "Gold" towns possessed housing specifically designed to be comfortable and equipped to withstand the tropical conditions. These towns were also equipped with clubhouses, bandstands, hotels, and ballparks, Y.M.C.A.s and churches. 35 The full range of ancillary structures required to support the creation of the Panama Canal was enormous. In 1908, for example, the Annual Report contains this accounting: 36

Among the more important items of construction performed by this division [Building Division] during the year are the following: 3 3 hospital buildings, 3 7 storehouses, 7 fire department buildings, 9 laborers' bath houses, 26 laborers' range closets, 6 fumigation houses, 5 corrals, 9 schoolhouses, 5 commissaries, 1 clubhouse, 4 post-offices, 9 office buildings, 2 lodge halls, 18 standard laborers' barracks, 5 band stands, 2 Gallego mess halls, 5 hotels, 4 jails, 8 powder and detonator houses, 4 markets, 3 5 shop buildings, 8 laborers' washhouses, 3 bridges, and 200 type quarters for "gold" employees.

34Knapp and Knapp, Red. White, and Blue Paradise, 266.

35McCullough, Path Between the Seas, 472, 478, 576; Stephen Frenkel, "Geography, Empire, and Environmental Determinism," Geosraphical Review 82, (April 1992): 147-148.

36Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Re.port of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1908, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1909), 93.



As construction of the Canal neared completion, the ICC began to plan for the operation and maintenance aspects which would become primary once the Canal was opened. As part of this preparation, plans were developed for the siting of permanent employee towns and construction of permanent buildings. An architectural force was created for this purpose on 1July1912, and was assigned to work under Austin W. Lord. As well as being the senior member of Lord, Hewlett, and Tallant of New York, Mr. Lord was also the head of Columbia University's architecture department. Austin Lord was asked to design and prepare plans for the permanent Canal Zone buildings, which were all to be of a uniform style. He visited the Isthmus 10 July-6 August 1912, then returned to New York and worked through assistant architect Mario J. Schiavoni in the Zone. Mr. Lord's plans were primarily focused on the Administration Building and the planned 11gold 11 town of Balboa. Among the plans prepared by his office were official and permanent quarters, a post office, schoolhouse, hotel, social hall, fire and police stations, dispensary, church, telephone building, clubhouse, and commissary store. Landscape architect William L. Phillips was responsible for permanent townsites, streets, parks, and other necessary features. 37

The unifying style selected for the permanent buildings was modified Italian Renaissance. This style was selected 11 ••• by utility and conformation with tropical weather and topography, using arcades or exterior colonnades, and arched windows where feasible. 1138

Construction materials were specified as 11 ••• reinforced concrete and hollow concrete blocks, stuccoed on the outside, and ... covered by dark red tile roofs. 1139 By 30 June 1916, the use of hollow concrete block for bearing walls was discontinued in favor of poured reinforced concrete for main walls and floors. 40

The layout of Balboa created three main areas. The Administration Building occupied the leveled top of a spur of Ancon Hill and was built facing Sosa Hill. Between the two hills was a low-lying area raised and leveled by adding fill. There were some quarters located

37 Canal Record, 7 August 1912, 397; Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Year Ended June 30. 1913, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1913), 21; Canal Record, 18 June 1913, 361.

38Canal Record, 18 June 1913, 361.

39Ibid.

40The Panama Canal, Annual Report of the Governor of the Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1916, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1916), 285.



on the backs and sides of the hills, but the main part of town was located in between. A divided avenue connected the base ofboth hills, and the broad median (designed with the same dimensions as a lock chamber) was planted with grass and bordered with palm trees. This central area was named The Prado. The area at the top of The Prado near the Administration Building contained the civil administration buildings such as the fire station and the schoolhouse. The far end of The Prado was the site for retail and social structures such as the clubhouse, commissary, and post-office. The intervening section of The Prado and several lateral streets contained quarters for "gold" employees.41

On 1August1913, the ICC office of Mr. Lord was closed, and all materials transferred to the Zone for use by M. J. Schiavoni, assistant architect. Construction in Balboa began that same month. Mr. Schiavoni was promoted to architect and was now responsible for completing the design and construction of the permanent buildings. Effective 5 December 1913, Mr. Schiavoni resigned and his duties as architect were taken over by Mr. Samuel M. Hitt. 42

Schooling in the Zone

In 1904, when the United States gained control of the Canal Zone, the Isthmian Canal Commission established a public school system to be patterned after the American system. The Commissioners wanted to develop a system of schools that would allow children returning to the United States to be accepted as academic equals. To begin this endeavor, a school census was taken in 1906 and over 1, 000 children of elementary school age were counted. Plans were made for buildings and equipment, the first appropriation was made, and Donald C. O'Connor was named Superintendent. The first public school operating under the United States government opened at Corozal in January 1906, and by 1908 the school system was placed under the Department of Law and Government, Isthmian Canal Commission. Student supplies were furnished free of charge, and tuition was free to the children of the Isthmian Canal Commission employees. There were two sets of schools

41Canal Record, 17 December 1913, 15 3.

42Canal Record, 13 August 1913, 431~ Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission and The Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30. 1914, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914), 311.



established, one for "white" children (basically U.S. citizens) and one for "colored" children (non-US. citizens).43

A building program was also initiated early on to provide appropriate settings for educational achievement. Existing buildings were assigned provisionally for use as schools, and only temporary structures were erected, since the construction population in the Canal Zone fluctuated greatly. By 1908, there were ten white elementary schools staffed by twenty-four white American teachers and enrolling nearly 400 students. In contrast, there were twenty teachers (non-US. citizens) for the 2,146 colored students in grades 1-5. 44 The white schools provided for all twelve grades almost since the beginning (1907-1908), and a junior college was established by 1933. The colored schools did not go beyond grade 5 originally, and did not reach grade 8 until 1928. Grade 9 was added in 1942, and an occupational high school appeared in 1946.45

With the creation in 1914 of The Panama Canal as the governing organization of the Canal Zone, the school system was placed under the Executive Department as a function of the Zone government. Plans were made for constructing permanent school buildings for the more stable population needed to operate and maintain the Canal. Tuition was free for the children of employees and military residents in the Zone. 46 The curriculum for the schools continued to develop over the years, with the addition of physical fitness, music, Spanish, vocational, and penmanship classes by 1918. Additional teachers were hired in 1924 to lower the student-teacher ratio. Formal accreditation for the high schools was given in 1929 by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 47

In 1929-1930, a survey of Canal Zone schools was carried out by a team of researchers from Columbia University. Results indicated white students were performing above average in mainstream academic subjects as compared to United States students. The

4 3Katherine Cook, "Public Education in the Panama Canal Zone," U.S. Department of the Interior, Bulletin 1939, No. 8, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1939), 15-18~ Paul McDonald, Jr., Ed., Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone, 1904-1979, (Panama Canal Area: no publisher, 1980), 3-4.

44McDonald, Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone, 3-5, 107-109.

45Ibid., 69, 109.

46Cook, "Public Education in the Panama Canal Zone," 19-20.

47McDonald, Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone, 5-10, 35.



report, however, called for an increase in special subjects for both elementary and secondary students. Needs were cited for a larger supervisory staff, better provision made for junior high education, new buildings for secondary education, six year schools for elementary and secondary education, and the establishment of a junior college. For the colored schools, the survey found students performing nearly as well as their white counterparts, and well above that found in stateside colored schools. This was noted as especially significant given the generally poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms, double sessions, and less well educated teachers as compared with the white schools. Over the next few decades, the recommendations of the survey team were adopted and integrated into both school systems. With the exception of the period during WWII, construction of school facilities continued, as did efforts to increase the ratio of teachers with four-year degrees and to broaden the curricula offered with more electives and vocational classes. 48

The reorganization of The Panama Canal into the Panama Canal Company and Canal Zone Government in 1951 resulted in the Canal becoming in effect a government corporation run as a business. As such, the Company was not allowed to conduct civil functions. These were placed under the Canal Zone Government, and the schools became part of the Civil Affairs Bureau. Three years later a school reorganization took place which reclassified the white schools as "U.S. schools," and the colored schools became "Latin American schools." The latter were taught in Spanish and served primarily Panamanian citizens. As a new ( 1946) Panamanian constitution opened up citizenship for the West Indian Canal workers and their dependents, these made up the bulk of students in the Latin American schools. Coupled with an agency decision after WWII to gradually eliminate Zone housing for all non-U.S. citizen employees, the beginning of the end of the Latin American schools was put into place. The enrollment began to decline as fewer students were eligible to attend these schools, and consolidation with the U.S. schools finally took place in 1975-1977. From a 1953 enrollment of 4539, at the end there were only 300 students that were moved into the U.S. schools. 49

During this period of consolidation, treaty negotiations between the United States and Panama were drawing to a close. The 1977 Panama Canal Treaties resulted in the elimination of the Canal Zone Government Schools Division as well as the rest of the Panama Canal Company and Canal Zone Government. The school system became part of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools system (DoDDS) on 1October1979. "They became schools for the children of United States personnel and did not accept any

48Ibid., 10-11, 36-39, 116-119.

49Ibid., 51-52, 122, 125-131.



new foreign students, though the foreign students already enrolled in them were allowed to remain in the system until they graduated. "50 This changeover resulted in an increase in educational specialist positions, a set five or seven year curriculum review, higher teacher education requirements, and the introduction of media centers in the elementary schools. Between 1979 and 1990, student enrollment had steadily declined from 8711 to 3838. This decline was due to several factors. Fewer American workers (and families) were coming to Panama as Panamanian nationals began to take over all levels of Canal employment. The political situation worsened with the takeover by Manuel Noriega in 1983, American citizens were increasingly harassed, and public safety declined, resulting in fewer Americans willing to send their children off to school. Schools were guarded by U.S. military troops for several weeks in October 1989, and Operation Just Cause went into effect at the end of the year to remove Noriega from power. Schools were used as command centers and other facilities by the military, and the spring semester was delayed for several weeks. 51 All schools will be turned over to the Republic of Panama on or before 31 December 1999 when U.S. authority to operate and defend the Canal ends.

Balboa Elementary School

Although plans for a permanent schoolhouse similar to the Administration Building in material and style were produced early in 1914, it was decided to place a temporary structure on the site. The makeshift schoolhouse was created from four construction era houses moved from the town of Empire. By 1916, plans were once again prepared for a permanent Balboa schoolhouse as part of a building program that also included schools in the company towns of Ancon, Pedro Miguel, Gatun, and Cristobal. Designed to be on par with stateside schools, they incorporated current ideas about environmental influences: 52

These buildings will be :fireproof and will contain all the modern conveniences of an up-to-date school in the United States, such as sanitary fountains, providing a continuous flow of clear cold water from a cooling plant within the building; large airy rooms with light coming from the left side only, the glare of the sun being diffused by ground glass panes in the upper portion of the window; steel window sash, the windows being pivoted to facilitate ventilation; the walls of class rooms to

50Knapp and Knapp, Red, White, and Blue Paradise, 159.

51Phi Delta Kappa, Isthmus of Panama Chapter, Schoolin~ in DoDDS-Panama--1979-1989, (Panama: no publisher, 1990), 1-4.

52Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report, 1914, 320; Canal Record, 26 July 1916, 416.


HABSNo. CZ-7 (Page 25)

be tinted a neutral color to avoid irritation to the eyes of pupils; blackboards of slate instead of composition.

Plans for the Balboa schoolhouse were provided in detail by the Canal Record, a company newspaper, on 26 July 1916: 53

The new school building will be located on the site of the present structure, which is being moved over toward the Administration Building about 100 feet, and will be built around an interior court. The design leans toward a modified Italian renaissance. In front is a loggia, flanked on both sides with the end walls of the right and left wings of the building, the corners of these walls and the walls adjacent to the projecting loggia being heavily rusticated, while the intervening wall surface above this is treated with a column effect, and the two ends of the building flanking, being treated with a pilaster and blank wall treatment. Band courses form the chief treatment of the building and are carried around the entire school. The court treatment is very simple, the first course being arched, while the second and third courses are column effect.

The first and second floors will contain the grammar school grades, and in addition a principal's room, teachers' room, library and supervisor's room. The third floor will contain the high school division equipped with classrooms, science laboratory and study, and the commercial division classroom, and in addition a large study or assembly room seating about 200 pupils. An innovation is the open air lunchroom, located over the entrance loggia.

Construction was underway by the autumn of 1916 with the concrete work finished by the end of February 1917, and the school was completed later that summer. 54 The nearly completed structure was described as being three stories in height with an interior courtyard. Twenty-five standard classrooms were included, as were an assembly room, laboratory, three libraries, five administrative rooms, eleven toilets, three janitors' rooms, five storage rooms, one lunch shelter,

53Canal Record, 26 July 1916, 416.

54Canal Record, 8 November 1916, 140; 28 February 1917, 356; 27 June 1917, 539.



one dry room, one bathroom, and two closets. ss It was expected to house all grades with primary on the first floor, intermediate on the second, and high school on the third. s6

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, high school enrollment grew rapidly from a low of 129 in 1923 to 435 in 1930. Elementary and junior high enrollment was rising as well, creating severely overcrowded conditions. By 1932, the secondary students in Balboa were using the school building entirely, and the grade school students had been removed to temporary structures. The need for a new secondary school building was evident. Pressure had also been rising for the establishment of a Zone junior college. As a result, plans were drafted for a junior college-high school complex in Balboa. Funds were requested, but not forthcoming as this was during the height of the Depression. To provide a short-term solution, Canal authorities came up with $20,000 for a new temporary wooden building which was given over for junior high use. The removal of the junior high students from the Balboa school freed up the third floor which, after $13,000 in remodeling was done, served as the new junior college. In 1933, funds for public works in the Canal Zone were received as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, and a new high school/junior college building was constructed in 1934 and opened for the 1935-36 school year. This opened up the Balboa school for use strictly as an elementary facility for the first time. It has remained devoted to this use to the present day. s7

Although air-conditioning began to be used in the Canal Zone in the late 1950s when the Zone electrical system was converted from twenty-five to sixty cycles, Balboa Elementary was not equipped with this innovation until 1965.ss Since implementation of the Panama Canal Treaties in 1979, enrollment at Balboa Elementary has steadily declined from 676 to 294 in 1990. As military installations are turned over to the Republic of Panama, this decrease in student population will accelerate. The schoolgrounds were the site of Army maneuvers in August 1989, and troops were deployed to guard the school during the attempted coup against Noriega in

55Dry rooms were a necessity on the Isthmus and consisted of a closet or pantry size room with a tight fitting door. A light bulb burned continuously inside to keep the mold at bay. Any leather articles or other susceptible material had to be kept in these rooms.

56The Panama Canal, Annual Report of the Governor of The Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1917, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1917), 78.

57McDonald, Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone, 34, 39-40, 68-70.

58Knapp and Knapp, Red, White and Blue Paradise, 42-43; McDonald, Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone, 17.



October. The school was used to briefly house refugees during the early days of Operation Just Cause in December of that year. 59

. PART II. ARCHITECTURAL STATENfENT:

A General Statement:

1. Architectural Character: Balboa School is constructed of poured-in-place concrete, topped with a ceramic tile roof typical of Mediterranean architecture. It has a formal symmetrical arrangement whereby a recessed central block is flanked by projecting end wings. The first floor corners are patterned by rustication. The elaborate front entrance, with its arched loggia, exhibits Italian Renaissance influences. In sum, the building represents a stately educational facility serving the Balboa vicinity.

2. Condition of Fabric: The exterior of the building is in good condition. It appears to receive regular maintenance. However, the integrity of the interior spaces is virtually nonexistent due to extensive renovations. With the disparate condition between the interior and exterior, the character of the building is only partially preserved.

B. Description of the Exterior:

1. Overall Dimensions: Balboa School is made up of a 118' x 150' block with a 7 4' x 84' center courtyard void. An additional 12' x 74' loggia, and four 6' x 12' porches provide sheltered points of entry into the building. The finished first floor is approximately three feet above grade. The height between the finished first floor and finished second floor is 15 feet. The height between the finished second and third floor is 14 feet. The height between the finished third floor and third floor ceiling joists is 13'-2". The building contains approximately 11,484 square feet per floor on the first and second levels. This area is reduced to 11,244 square feet on the third floor.

2. Foundations: Foundations are constructed of poured-in-place reinforced concrete footings.

3. Walls: Exterior walls are poured-in-place concrete. Heavy quoins, arches, corner pilasters, and band courses within the structural walls act as the primary decorative treatment. An elaborate scrolled crest is situated front and center at the second floor, and a simple entablature runs along the top of the first and third floors. Two small scrolls and a

59Phi Delta Kappa, Schooling in DoDDS-Panama. 13-17.



diamond-shaped tile decorate the wall arches of the side entry porches. Most exterior surfaces are painted a cream color.

4. Structural System: The structure is a poured-in-place concrete bearing wall system on reinforced concrete footings.

5. Porches. Exterior Stairs: The projecting entry loggia is a prominent feature on the building. Its nine arches run along the central block on the north side. The loggia has simple cornice and entablature moldings, and letters spelling "Balboa School." A decorative balustrade runs along the top of its length. The loggia is surrounded on three sides by concrete five-riser stairs. A simple 3' high steel pipe railing occurs at the centerline of the loggia steps. Two additional risers step down to the sidewalk near the circular drive. The building also has four projecting entry porches at the east and west wings. Each of these has a single high arch with a keystone, two shorter side arches, a simple cornice and entablature, and a simplified balustrade. Concrete steps lead up to the porches.

6. Chimneys: None.

7. Openings:

a. Doors: Double wrought iron gates with a decorative wrought iron grille fill the main entry arch at the front of the building. Gates open to the front entrance hall which leads to the courtyard. The entire entry sequence is open-air. Secondary entrances at the east and west sides of the building include a pair of metal doors in metal frames. A metal transom glazed with safety glass tops the doors. In addition, two doors at the third floor classroom addition lead onto a front balcony-type space over the former lunchroom. These doors have since been sealed shut. Most openings and frames are painted a cream color. There are no doors at the rear of the building.

b. Windows: Steel awning windows are located 3' -2" above the finished floor at all levels. Each 6'-6" bay contains two four-light operable awning sash windows, with a fixed, blocked transom above. The bays extend to a height of 8'-2-3/8". A 6-1/2" concrete sill continuously lines the building at the second and third levels. The same sill is intermittent at the first floor. All windows are replacements, but they are similar in design to the original eight-light sash. The front center block of the building has louvered windows. The original openings here were arched with bottom hinged semi-circular sashes. These have since been blocked. Various other openings are blocked with permanent construction or vents. The windows of

8. RQQf:



rooms containing computer and audio/video equipment have metal security meshes. Most window frames are painted a cream color.

a. Shape. Materials: A low-pitched hipped roof with projecting wings covers the building. A slightly lower portion appears at the center block. The roof is clad in red ceramic tile, typical of the Italian Renaissance style. A flat concrete roof covers the loggia, and a slightly inclined built-up rooftops the recent third floor addition. The roof eaves are broad, again characteristic ofltalian Renaissance architecture.

b. Dormers. Vents: The roof is vented to the outside by eight arched copper dormers with metal horizontal louvered openings. Six are located in the courtyard and two are at the front of the building. Soil stacks vent the rest rooms.

C. Description of the Interior:

1. Floor Plans: Balboa School is a three-story academic building with a central front entry loggia leading to an open-air courtyard. Four staircases rise from the comers of the building. The main mass of the building is rectangular in plan, with a central courtyard open on all levels. A single-loaded corridor runs around the courtyard, identical on all three floors. Some variation of interior partition walls occurs from floor to floor, allowing for the different floor-to-floor heights. Rest rooms are located at different areas on each floor. The rest rooms retain some of their original 1917 fixtures and partitions. Utility spaces retain most of their original fixtures and finishes.

2. Stairways: The four comer open well staircases are constructed of poured-in-place concrete. Landings are located between each finished floor slab. Railings are constructed of hollow tube steel balusters with wood handrails and concrete newel posts. Stair rails are 3 feet high and painted. Stairwell windows at the second floor have been blocked with permanent construction. Concrete three-riser steps lead down to the grade level of the courtyard on all four sides.

3. Flooring: Most spaces have been extensively remodeled throughout the life of the building and are covered in a low pile carpet. Vinyl tile flooring can be found in the lounge, some storage rooms, lunchrooms, and the southeast classroom on the second floor. The entrance hall features its original red ceramic tile flooring, and utility spaces have their original wood and tile floors. Of particular interest is the circular tile floor in the third floor janitor's closet. The first floor and corridors are concrete. Bathroom floors are covered in replacement ceramic tile.



4. Wall Finishes: Interior courtyard walls and most partition walls are original to the construction of the building. Made of concrete with a finish coat applied to the surface, the walls are painted a cream color. The offices of the principal and assistant principal, as well as the music room, have new wood frame partitions dividing the original spaces. New music room walls are finished with acoustical tiles. A mechanical equipment room with perforated corrugated metal walls has been constructed in the back comer of Room 304A Rest rooms have full-height ceramic tile walls, except for the first floor staff bath and third floor janitor's closet where the tile appears as wainscoting.

5. Ceiling Finishes: Suspended acoustical ceilings are typical throughout the building. They drop at mid-space in rooms 204 and 205, most likely to accommodate mechanical equipment. Steel joists and ductwork are left exposed at the third floor front addition. Concrete ceilings are left exposed at the utility spaces.

6. Openings:

a. Doors: With the exception of two five-panel doors at a third floor hall closet, all doors are replacements. A hollow wood door with a single vertical light is typical. These doors appear in pairs at Rooms 304A and 304B. The same door type without the light provides access to the bathrooms and utility spaces. Many doorways have their original wood frames. New metal doors in metal frames provide access to the third floor mechanical closet additions. These closets also have doors on their upper walls which open toward the courtyard. Most overhead transoms and a couple of door openings on the north side of floor three have been blocked.

b. Windows: The steel sash awning windows have plain interior frames and sills. Rooms 102 and 103 have louvered windows facing the courtyard. These windows have metal security meshes. The bathrooms are vented to the courtyard through louvered glass openings on the upper part of the wall. Their outward-facing windows have obscure glass. Room 109 has glass block windows, and an adjacent utility room has a chute opening.

7. Decorative Features and Trim: The interior of the building is fairly utilitarian in nature, therefore decorative finishes are minimal. Original slate blackboards, as well as wood blackboard frames and chalk trays, remain in some classrooms. In a few cases, these blackboards have been relocated. Wood baseboards, original to the building, occur at the second floor lunchrooms and at some storage closets. Remaining baseboards are black vinyl. Small wood frames are mounted to the wall adjacent to each classroom door,



possibly for teacher name plates. Courtyard corridors feature arched colonnades on the first floor and square columns on the second and third floors. Flag holders are mounted on all four sides of the courtyard at the second floor. The entry hall contains a school bell, possibly intended for a bell tower that was never constructed (refer to photographic copy HABS No. CZ-7-26).

8. Hardware: A single pair of five-panel doors at a third floor closet retains its original latch and hinges. All remaining hardware is replacement.

9. Mechanical Equipment:

a. Heating and Air Conditioning. Ventilation: Air conditioning for Balboa Elementary School is part of the central chill water system serving the Panama Canal Commission. It was installed in the building in 1965, altering the character of the original corridor and interior spaces. The existing ceilings are lower than the originals, with ductwork feeding into the plenum space. The air conditioning system was renovated in 1993 with the installation of air-handling units, a chilled water pump, and miscellaneous accessories. Mechanical rooms were created in the back comer of Room 304A and in the third floor corridor. Rest rooms, utility rooms, and corridors are not air conditioned. The rest of the building is climate controlled.

b. Lighting: Original lighting fixtures in classrooms, offices, and rest rooms have been replaced with 2' x 4' recessed fluorescent lighting fixtures. Utility and storage room fixtures are single- and double-bulb ceiling mounted originals, with some 2' x 4' ceiling mounted fluorescent replacements.

c. Plumbing Fixtures: Most original plumbing fixtures remain in the building. Toilets and urinals are Standard brand originals. While most rest room sinks are originals, those in classrooms are new. All plumbing fixtures in utility rooms are original to the building. Wall type water coolers are replacements mounted on ceramic tile wall areas at the courtyard corridors. Metal replacement stall partitions are typical at rest rooms. An exception is the original marble stall partition located at the third floor janitor's closet (refer to photograph HABS No. CZ-7-17).

10. Original Furnishings: Original cabinets remain in the office space preceding the mechanical room addition in Room 304A. The original wood flooring is exposed at the base of these cabinets.

D. Site:



1. General Setting and Orientation: Balboa School is located on the site of its predecessor, and faces a circular drive that heads El Prado (Figure 2). This drive precedes Goethals Memorial at the base of the Panama Canal Commission Headquarters building. The school is functionally connected to Building 709, a gymnasium located directly behind the building to the southeast. Pedestrian canopies run from the building's side exit porches to the gymnasium and school bus pick-up canopies. School bus pick-up canopies and drives are situated at the northwest and southwest sides of the building. Vehicular parking spaces are located along the streets and a parking lot is located to the rear of the gymnasium.

2. Historic Landscape Design: The circular drive approach to the building at the head of El Prado shows Balboa School's importance in the company town of Balboa. Tall palm trees line both sides of the boulevard, adding to the formal appearance of the school's approach which is shared by the Goethals Memorial and Panama Canal Commission Headquarters. Two multi-trunk trees are symmetrically arranged at the central courtyard, and various plantings surround the building. Surface drains occur inside the perimeter steps of the courtyard, receiving runoff from the eaves above.

3. Outbuildings: Building 709, a gymnasium located to the southeast of the building, is associated with Balboa Elementary School. A concrete block mechanical equipment structure sets next to the school building on its northeast side.

Ill. SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

A Architectural drawings:

Original architectural drawings are on file at the Panama Canal Commission Headquarters in Balboa. Drawing numbers for the original construction drawings, dated August and September of 1916, are 1067-3 through 1067-5. Elevations are represented on two drawings numbered in the 4059 drawing series. An un-numbered drawing showing the original plot plan and various site sections also exists. Additional drawings showing 1992 air conditioning renovations are on file at the Directorate of Engineering and Housing (DEH) in Corozal, Panama. Drawings created for this renovation are considered "as-builts," and are filed under plan numbers F-730-48-01, Sheets 1 through 20.

BALBOA SCHOOL (Balboa Elementary S h c ool)


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B. Early Views:



View of El Prado looking west from Administration Building with Balboa School on left side, ca. July 4th, 1919 (HABS No. CZ-7-18). Original print located at the National Archives and Records Administration, Still Picture Branch, Panama Canal Collection Series, 185-G, #352, Washington, D.C. Photographer unknown.

View ofBalboa School looking southwest, ca. 1938 (HABS No. CZ-7-19). Original print located at the National Archives and Records Administration, Still Picture Branch, Panama Canal Collection Series, 185-G, #93, Washington, D.C. Photographer unknown.

Aerial view of Balboa Heights with Balboa School in background center entitled "Panama Birdseye Presented to The Panama Canal by Major General Sturgis, October 1, 193 8" (HABS No. CZ-7-20). Original print located in the Panama Canal Commission Technical Resources Center Collection, Balboa, Republic of Panama.

View of Balboa School looking southeast from El Prado, ca. 1939 (HABS No. CZ-7-21 ). Original print located at the National Archives and Records Administration, Still Picture Branch, Panama Canal Collection Series, 185-G, #2129, Washington, D.C. Photographer unknown.

View of Balboa School looking southwest, ca. post-1943 (HABS No. CZ-7-22). Original postcard located at USACERL, Champaign, IL. Kodachrome by Leon Greene, published exclusively for L.G.G.

C. Interviews: None

D. Bibliography:

Biesanz, John and Mavis. The People of Panama. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955.

Bishop, Joseph Bucklin and Farnham. Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal. New York and London: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1930.

Canal Record. (Canal Zone). 7 August 1912; 18 June, 13 August, 17 December 1913; 26 July, 8 November 1916; 28 February, 27 June 1917 .

..... oletta, Paolo E., ed. United States Nayy and Marine Corps Bases Overseas. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.



Collins, John 0. The Panama Guide. Mount Hope, CZ: I.C.C. Press, 1912.

Cook, Katherine. "Public Education in the Panama Canal Zone." U.S. Department of the Interior. Bulletin 1939, No. 8. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1939.

Core, Susie Pearl. Trails of Progress. or the Stoiy of Panama and its Canal. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1925.

Du Val, Miles P. Cadiz to Cathay: The Stoiy of the Long Struggle for a Waterway Across the American Isthmus. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1940.

Frenkel, Stephen. "Geography, Empire, and Environmental Determinism. 11 Geographical Review 82, April 1992: 143-153.

Isthmian Canal Commission. Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1908. Washington, D.C.: G~O, 1909.

Isthmian Canal Commission. Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1913. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1913.

Isthmian Canal Commission. Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission and The Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30. 1914. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914.

Johnson, Suzanne. Draft Report. "An American Legacy in Panama: A Brief History of the Department of Defense Installations and Properties, The Former Canal Zone, Republic of Panama. 11 Corozal, Panama: Directorate of Engineering and Housing, United States Army Garrison-Panama, 1995.

Jorden, William. Panama Odyssey. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984.

Knapp, Herbert and Mary. Red, White. and Blue Paradise: The American Canal Zone in Panama. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1984.

Mack, Gerstle. The Land Divided: A History of the Panama Canal and Other Isthmian Canal Projects. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1944.

Marshall, Logan. The Story of the Panama Canal. New York: L.T. Myers, 1913.



McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal. 1870-1914. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977.

McDonald, Paul Jr., Ed. Schooling in the Panama Canal Zone. 1904-1979. Panama Canal Area: no publisher, 1980.

Miller, Hugh Gordon. The Isthmian Hiwway: A Review of the Problems of the Caribbean. New York: MacMillan Co., 1929.

Phi Delta Kappa, Isthmus of Panama Chapter. Schooling in DoDDS-Panama--1979-1989. Panama: no publisher, 1990.

Ryan, Paul. The Panama Controversy: U.S. Diplomacy and Defense Interests. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1977.

The Panama Canal. Annual Report of the Governor of the Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1916. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1916.

The Panama Canal. Annual Report of the Governor of The Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1917. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1917.

U.S. Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives. Washington, D. C.

U.S. Department of State. Final Environmental Impact Statement for the New Panama Canal Treaties. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977.

U.S. House. Panama Canal. 1971: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs of the Committee on Foreiwi Affairs. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1971.

U.S. Senate. Background Documents Relating to the Panama Canal, Committee on Foreign Relations. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977.

U.S. Senate. A Chronology of Events Relating to the Panama Canal:Prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1977.

U.S. Senate. Defense. Maintenance and Operation of the Panama Canal. Including Administration and Government of the Canal Zone -- Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1978.



Williams, Mary W. Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy, 1815-1915. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1916.

Wright, Almon R. "Defense Sites Negotiations between the United States and Panama, 1936-1948." Department of State Bulletin, vol. 27, August 11, 1952.

E. Likely Sources not Yet Investigated: The Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Company records in the National Archives, Annual Reports of The Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Company post-1940.

F. Supplemental Material: None

N. PROJECT INFORMATION:

The project was sponsored by the Legacy Resources Management Program (LRMP) established by the United States Department of Defense. The project was headed by Ms. Julie L. Webster and Dr. Susan I. Enscore of the United States Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USACERL). The project was completed at the USACERL Tri-Services Cultural Resources Research Center. The project historian was Dr. Enscore, with contributions by Mr. Samuel Batzli and Mr. Robert Chenier (USACERL). Ms. Webster served as project architect. Mr. Martin Stupich produced the large format photographs contained in the report. Documentation was coordinated through the Directorate of Engineering and Housing (DER), Corozal, Panama, by Ms. Suzanne P. Johnson, Engineering Division, DEH, under the direction of LTC Patrick Staffieri, DER Director.