El-Sereno-Wilson-School

Place

El Sereno Middle School

El Sereno Middle School (formerly Wilson High) is notable for both its architectural and cultural significance, including for the role it played in the East L.A. Chicano Student Walkouts (Blowouts) of March 1968.

The campus of today’s El Sereno Middle School, located at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Gambier Street in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno, originated in the nineteenth century and has served a number of schools and grade levels throughout its history. What began as the Farmdale School District served by a 1899 wood-frame schoolhouse was annexed by LAUSD in 1915. 

The name of the campus changed from the Farmdale School to El Sereno Area High School in 1936, before being renamed Woodrow Wilson High School in 1937. 

Wilson High School garnered national attention for the role it, along with four other Los Angeles high schools, played in the East L.A. Chicano Student Walkouts (Blowouts) of March 1968. 

Since 1970, following the relocation of Wilson High, this campus has been home to El Sereno Middle School.

In 2018, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the five Walkout schools, including El Sereno Middle School, on America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list.

Rosalind Sagara/L.A. Conservancy | Mural of 1968 Walkouts at El Sereno Middle School
Rosalind Sagara/L.A. Conservancy | El Sereno Middle School
Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy | Auditorium
Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy