Venice School

Venice School. . Within one-eighth mile of this site was Woodville, the first settlement and county seat of Tulare County. It was named after John Wood, the leader of a party of eighteen from Mariposa mines, who built a log cabin and who was killed here by Indians in the fall of 1850 along with fifteen of his party. In 1852, under an oak tree near that cabin, the county of Tulare was formed out of the Southern part of Mariposa County and the cabin became the county seat. The settlement that sprang up here was called Woodville or Woodsville. In 1854 the county seat of government was moved to a new settlement eight miles west of here called Visalia. The people of this area started possíbly the first school in Tulare County. It was named the Woodville School District and remained so until the 1880's when the name was changed to Venice. Over the years the name of the area and the village had become known as Venice because of the abundance of water and the many streams and canals. The hills just north of the school were known as the Venice Hills. The Goad family deeded the property on which this the new school was built in 1898. It remained an active school and the only remnant of the oldest school in Tulare County until 1957 when the district ceded to the Ivanhoe District. The property reverted to the Goad family who in turn sold it to the Bente family who kept the school building safe. In 1995 a group of parents and educators formed the Venice Community School Inc. The school opened again in 1996 as a private school.