In 1889, the Basque founders of Farmdale, a small agricultural community known today as El Sereno, set out to prepare their children for the complexities of modern 19 century life through an education meant to serve them beyond their fertile valley and into the 20th century. To fulfill that goal, local farmers established the Farmdale School District, an early predecessor to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and sought a state-of-the-art schoolhouse staffed by professional educators. In 1892, the district hired the architectural firm of Bradbeer and Ferris to design a 1,870 square foot Queen Anne Revival-style schoolhouse on part of the old Rancho Rosa de Castilla Spanish land grant, and in 1894 the Old Farmdale School was completed. From 1889 until 1911, it was the only public school operating in the Farmdale School District. Intended to reflect 19th century educational trends in rural American schooling, the schoolhouse endured and served El Sereno students across three centuries through Farmdale Grammar, Wilson Senior High, and El Sereno (Junior High) Middle School.