School principals typically don’t get much love, but Rose Janette Bushnell (1879-1960) was an exception. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she first came to Los Angeles in 1907 when her older sister Lillian (1875-1957) started teaching at the now-defunct Hermon Seminary. Five years later, Rose began her long tenure as principal of what was then called Hermon Elementary. (There’s no record of what she did in the intervening five years.) She and her sister Mary (1878-1941), who taught at the same school, lived together on nearby Wheeling Way. As the story goes, the community wanted to rename the school for Rose and/or Mary (Lillian had gotten married and quit teaching), but the district wouldn’t allow it unless the school’s street shared the Bushnell name. So the community made it happen. If true, the process took years: Isleta Drive was rechristened Bushnell Way in 1925, yet Hermon didn’t become Bushnell Way Elementary School until 1944, when Rose Bushnell retired. Smashing side note: In 1928, the Bushnell sisters’ house was partly destroyed by a runaway steam shovel. They received a $4,300 settlement two years later.
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