In 1864 the first school that was in any sense a rival of the public school was started. The Grace Church Parish School became the rallying point for the first opposition to public education. This support alone would perhaps not have been sufficient to maintain it; but it also filled a place in the educational field which the public school seemed unable to occupy. That there was a real need for the school is apparent from the class of pupils that attended it. Large pupils who, owing to lack of early advantages, were far behind in their classes and who would have preferred to remain away rather than be classed with children much younger than themselves, and pupils advanced beyond the studies offered at the time by the district school, made up a large part of the number in attendance.[8] Latin, algebra, natural philosophy, and other advanced subjects were taught, and pupils for these studies came from the public school which had just previous to this time decided to exclude all branches beyond those usually taught in a district school.[9]
This school was opened in the old "Methodist Church" situated on the corner of Fifteenth Street and Franklin Avenue, and was in charge of the rector of the Episcopal Church, Rev. T. H. Hyland. Mrs. Hyland, who had been a teacher in the East, taught most of the classes.[8] The school was supported entirely by tuition fees which were $7 per quarter of thirteen weeks. Three quarters were taught each year, and the attendance ranged between twenty and thirty pupils.[8]
Rev. Mr. Hyland was appointed to the Astoria parish while it was a missionary station and so received no salary from the home congregation. The parish school was started chiefly as a means of revenue to help pay for the maintenance of the church.[8] Former pupils testify to the excellence of the school and to the popularity of its founders and teachers.
In 1866 the school moved to the rear of the church on Commercial Street, between Eighth and Ninth, and continued regularly until the departure of Rev. Mr. Hyland and wife in 1878.[8]
During the fall and winter of 1876-77 a night school, at which bookkeeping, writing, and arithmetic were taught, was taught by Mr. Kincaid in the Gray building.[10]
In 1878 there were at least four private schools in Astoria. Mrs. Maxwell Young taught a school of twenty-five pupils in a building where St. Mary's Hospital stands.[11] Miss Cora VanDusen taught a summer session in the building near the southeast corner of Tenth and Duane streets, which was rented by the school board and furnished to Miss VanDusen free of charge during the vacation of the public school.[12] When the public school opened in the fall this school was moved to the room formerly occupied by the parish school. Professor Worthington, principal of the public school, taught a private school of six pupils. The fourth private school was taught by Miss Johnson.
The increase in the number of private schools was due to two causes: dissatisfaction in some quarters with some action of the principal of the "lower town school,"[11] and the great increase in the school population. The latter cause was no doubt the more potent. At this time there were over five hundred children of school age in Astoria.
In 1881-82 Miss Hewett conducted a private school at Grace Church, with an average attendance of twenty-six pupils and an enrollment of forty-six.
From 1886 to 1895 Miss Emma C. Warren conducted a private school on Exchange Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth. This was by far the largest and most pretentious private school ever opened in Astoria, and yet represented only to a very small degree the idea antagonistic to the public school. All the grammar grades were taught, and also classes in advanced subjects, including Latin and German.[13] This school occupied to a great extent the place that should have been filled by a public high school. With the establishment of the high school in 1890-91 its field of usefulness was greatly limited, and in 1895 it was merged into the high school by the employment of the principal, Miss Warren, as the head of the department of English and English Literature, and the entrance of most of the pupils of Miss Warren's school into the high school.[13]