The Story of Oro Valley’s Russell Ranch School and Its Lasting Legacy.
Written by Devon Sloan, October 2023
It’s OCTOBER, and school just started…at least that was the case at The Russell Ranch School in the late 1930’s.
In the early 1900’s, ranch schools became popular to provide an education to youth living in rural areas. However, wealthy Easterners soon realized they could provide their children with an opportunity to enjoy experiences not found in East coast cities. Sending their children to boarding schools that would enable them to live a life that encompassed nature, a ‘western’ style of living (think horseback riding, unfamiliar farm/ranch equipment, various chores), became a popular alternative.
Reverend Robert Russell, a minister from New York, started the Russell Ranch School and hired highly acclaimed teachers to educate students in grades 7 through 10. He and his wife were headmaster and headmistress. The school year began In October and ended in May. (No doubt the climate had much to do with that!) Although mostly a boarding school, the Russell Ranch School accommodated day students, including children of some locals you may have heard of – Laurence Rooney and Joe Bonanno, to name two.
Russell Ranch School Sign
Students from over 17 states and four foreign nations learned far more than just a western style of living (although horseback riding was very popular). Academic studies included international affairs and politics as well as the expected geography, history, math, and English classes. Hobbies and crafts were encouraged, and a building was even designed and built specifically for those skills. Additional extracurricular activities were shooting, baseball, and drama.
The school was closed in 1950 due to lack of funding, and became a guest ranch, a motel, a hippie compound, and is now a successful stables complex – the Rolling Hills Riding Academy, owned by Susan Blake. It is located on the north side right before the entrance to Catalina State Park, and many of the buildings (which include the main ranch house, dormitories, several classrooms, and a library) are still standing. Definitely worth a trip to see Oro Valley history come alive!
Stables at Rolling Hills Riding Academy, October 2023, Formerly Russell Ranch School
RUSSELL RANCH SCHOOL
The Russell Ranch School sat on 160 acres at the base of what is now Catalina State Park, on land once homesteaded by Teodoro Marin and later by Buster Bailey. Promotional materials for the boys’ boarding school promised that “the locale not only benefits the healthy, growing boy, but also gives renewed strength and stamina… In this part of the state many varieties of cactus and plant life fill the desert with interest and beauty.”
Appealing largely to prominent East Coast families seeking both academic rigor and outdoor adventure for their sons, the school operated from 1939 to 1950. The former Russell Ranch property is now home to Cielo Tierra Stables.
The Rooney family, who wintered in the area from the 1930s through the 1950s, sent their son to the school. They later purchased a large parcel from Jack Procter of Steam Pump Ranch along the Oracle corridor—land that has since been largely developed for commercial use.
Russell Ranch School OVHS Display Exhibit
Photographs, scrapbook and documents donated to the Oro Valley Historical Society by Debbie Giese and Pat Marshall granddaughters of Dr. & Mrs. Robert Russell founders of the Russell Ranch School.
Love: Let Oro Valley Excel – Heather’s Corner: Russell Ranch School for Boys: An Oro Valley Legend for Those Who Attended, January 2015
Learn more about western ranch schools in this article by Kathy Montgomery in the February 2024 issue of Arizona Highways: Reading, Writing…and Ranching
Arizona Origins Facebook post, The Origins of Russell Ranch School taken from
Oro Valley- The First Fifty Years by Jim Williams (AASLH award winning book!) – can be purchased at Amazon, the Western National Parks Store on North Vistoso Village Drive, or in the Pusch House Museum at historic Steam Pump Ranch, with proceeds benefitting the Oro Valley Historical Society.
Buster Bailey: A Life Carved from Desert Grit, by Devon Sloan, October 2023