The Howard School, which opened in September 1912, is one of the oldest private schools on the South Coast. It was the brainchild of Hannah Howard, who began the school to supplement her family’s income.
The first campus was located on South Jameson Lane in Montecito. The main building had originally been a restaurant, the Grove House, which was operated by the Alfred Jacoutot Jr. family in the 1890s. After the Jacoutot family had moved on, the Grove House developed a shady reputation under the name Channel City Suburban Club, a restaurant and tavern that apparently also dabbled in prostitution. The sheriff shut down this operation in 1908.
John and Hannah Howard arrived in Montecito shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Natives of Canada, Hannah had taught school in Winnipeg and John had earned a pharmacy degree at McGill University in Montreal. The couple moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where John hoped to open a drug store. The 1906 quake trapped him in a building for two days, and his health remained delicate from that day forward.