[Waltrip79]

Hi, does anyone remember the following schools near the Heights? Cleveland Elementary, that was formerly on Jackson Hill. The original Ben Milam Elementary was on Center Street.

Cleveland Elementary had a prime spot off of Memorial Parkway. After it was closed, it was part of
HCC. It's been since torn down for apartments/condos. I attended there around 1965-1970.

The architecture of the original Ben Milam struck me as kind of creepy as a kid. It was brick painted green, I believe and had a long series of steps on at least 3 sides of the school. Reminded me of a Mexican pyramid. The school was dark and creepy with wooden floors. The "basement" of the school was actually the ground floor. I believe the school was built around 1915. I think it was torn down in the '80s and rebuilt. Last year, it was closed down when HISD decided to merge it with Memorial Elementary. I attended this school around 1972-1976,

[WestUNative]

I have nothing on the schools you are seeking, but would like to add a request here. In the mid-1940s, my Mother was Secretary at a very old school, the original Longfellow Elementary. I believe it could have been around 100 years old at the time. I was a very little girl, but the impression is that it was located a bit southeast of downtown.

It was huge with monster staircase leading way up to front door. The ceilings were, I would guess, about 20 feet high, the floors some sort of glazed stone and the whole interior had heavy, dark wood architectural embellishments. The classrooms were on two storey's and the cafeteria was in the basement, which had plenty of windows and was at actual ground level. Outside on the playgroud was a permanent, metal maypole and it was used with great ceremony on May Day each year.

All you old photo experts, I would love to have a picture and to know the street address. So far, Google is getting me nowhere.

Thanks for any help.

[Firebird65]

Well, while we're at it, if any one has any info on the old Addick's High School or Cedar Bayou High School, it would be appreciated.

I am fairly confident Addicks closed in the late 1940s when construction started on the reservoir. But what happened to the students and the district itself? I live on Westheimer and Gessner, and according to an old map, the northwest corner of that intersection was the southeasternmost part of the Addicks school district. Now it's part of HISD. Apparently, the district was split between Katy, Spring Branch and HISD, and perhaps Cy-Fair too. Anyone know about that or the history of the school?

As for Cedar Bayou, I know the school became a junior high in the Goose Creek ISD in 1953 when the Cedar Bayou district was absorbed by GCISD. Anyone know the history of that school?

Reason I'm asking is that I'm doing a history of my high school's football team and we played both of these schools in the 1940s.

[Gary]

Both Westchester and Spring Branch high schools (SBISD) have been closed.

[Firebird65]

Gary, on Friday, August 25th, 2006 @ 2:45pm, said:

Both Westchester and Spring Branch high schools (SBISD) have been closed.

Actually, those schools are open, but they're some sort of magnet or alternative schools. Same thing with Carver in the Aldine ISD.

[Gary]

Firebird65, on Friday, August 25th, 2006 @ 2:54pm, said:

Actually, those schools are open, but they're some sort of magnet or alternative schools. Same thing with Carver in the Aldine ISD.

To my knowledge Spring Branch has been razed, and Westchester is in the Houston Community College system. Soooo, both are in essence gone.

[Pumapayam]

Gary, on Friday, August 25th, 2006 @ 3:02pm, said:

Westchester is in the Houston Community College system. Soooo, both are in essence gone.

Westchester reverted back to SBISD while Stratford was getting reburbished as a temp highschool. I don't think HCC uses it anymore with the huge campus it built around the Builder Square/AMC 10 shopping on the NE corner of Beltway-8 and I-10 West.

[VicMan]

Westchester is now Westchester Academy for International Studies

I'm gonna steal this list from the Houston ISD entry of Wikipedia:

All of these schools closed!

" * Argyle Elementary School (Closed spring 2005, Argyle was located in a strip mall - Students rezoned to Foerster ES)
* Richard Brock Elementary School (Closed spring 2005, Students rezoned to Crockett ES) - Campus became an early childhood center
* Carnegie Elementary School (Closed spring 2002, Students rezoned to Woodson K-8 Center) - Campus became a high school (named after Andrew Carnegie)
* Robert C. Chatham Elementary School (closed in spring 2006, Students rezoned to Sanderson ES)
* Clinton Park Elementary School (closed in spring 2005, Students rezoned to Pleasantville ES)
* Diversity Roots And Wings Academy (Draw) (Houston, Opened 2001, closed 2004)
* Fannin Elementary School (Houston)
* Frederick Douglass Elementary School (Closed spring 2005, Students rezoned to Dodson ES - The campus later became New Orleans West, a charter school for Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans (named after Frederick Douglass))
* Rosa Lee Easter Elementary School (closed in 2006, Students rezoned to Sanderson ES)
* Eighth Avenue Elementary School (Closed spring 2004, Students rezoned to Love ES)
* Gregory Elementary School
* Holden Elementary School (Closed spring 2004,Students rezoned to Helms ES and Sinclair ES)
* Lamar Elementary School (Closed spring 2002, School replaced by Ketelsen ES (named after Mirabeau B. Lamar))
* Robert E. Lee Elementary School (Closed spring 2002, School replaced by Ketelsen ES (named after Robert E. Lee))
* McGowan Elementary School
* Milam Elementary School (Closed spring 2004, Students rezoned to Memorial ES (named after Ben Milam))
* Montrose Elementary School
* Will Rogers Elementary School (opened fall 1950, closed spring 2006, Students rezoned to Poe ES and St. George Place ES (named after Will Rogers)) [6]
* J. D. Ryan Elementary School (closed spring 2005, Students rezoned to Jefferson ES and Looscan ES)
* Sanderson Elementary School (Houston, closed spring 2006)
* Sharpview Elementary School (opened fall 2000, closed spring 2004)
* Southland Elementary School
* Sunset Heights School (Currently used as HISD offices)
* TSU/HISD Lab School (Houston - HISD announced that it would be closed after fall 2006 - Texas State University now runs the school as a charter school)
* YMCA Of Greater Houston Charter School (closed 2004, Houston)
"

This post has been edited by VicMan: Friday, August 25, 2006 at 4:26 PM

[Hunter]

There are 2 old schools on Telephone Rd.. Not sure of their names but they are old schools! One of them is now used as a media center of some sort for HISD.

[gnu]

Hunter, on Friday, September 1st, 2006 @ 2:28pm, said:

There are 2 old schools on Telephone Rd.. Not sure of their names but they are old schools! One of them is now used as a media center of some sort for HISD.

one of them is the old cage school (at lawndale)
not sure what/where the other one is you are referring to.

i googled the HISD media center and it came back to a building on Telephone at Griggs.
I think i do remember seeing that now.
Maybe that is the original building for Brookline elementary?

EDIT:
my 1951 directory indeed shows it as Brookline Elementary

This post has been edited by gnu: Friday, September 1, 2006 at 3:21 PM

[KewpieCleaners]

San Jac?

[VicMan]

KewpieCleaners, on Friday, September 1st, 2006 @ 7:38pm, said:

San Jac?

It closed in the late 1970s...

[musicman]

VicMan, on Friday, September 1st, 2006 @ 11:52pm, said:

It closed in the late 1970s...

But it still exists...as HCC Central.

[WestUNative]

You are an angel! I had in my mind the Chartres street, but was unsure if that was correct. When was this map created? Do you have a date?

Lavinia Namendorf was a dear family friend, I have a picture of her, wish I could make the stupid Photobucket work. We were friends with all the teachers there, several of whom lived in West University Place like us. I can name most of them. My mother went to work there in 1943 and stayed there until she became Secretary to Austin E. Hill, M.D., the health director for HISD in the headquarters building downtown.

At the time, this was a very rundown, poor neighborhood. No gangs, no dope, just heartbreaking poverty. The staff used to do incredible things for the kids that probably would not be allowed now. Like paying for their food, buying them clothes and in one case, actually bathing a girl who was so encrusted with dirt you couldn't see her skin. But, I loved the place, being the little mascot roaming the halls, sitting in on big kid classes, winding the Maypole with them, being pampered in the lunchroom in the basement by the school maid, Juanita, in the afternoons with strawberry shortcake. Of course, it was our secret and finally my mom found out and had a fit. Juanita was spending her meagre funds to treat me.

A million thanks for locating it for me, I'll be in town next weekend and will try to drive by and see the location.

[icepickphil]

What's the history of Montrose Elementary School? When did it open/close and is the building still there?

[57Tbird]

icepickphil, on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 @ 11:23am, said:

What's the history of Montrose Elementary School? When did it open/close and is the building still there?

Montrose Elementary was built in 1913, in the block bounded by Stanford, W. Main, Sulross, and Greeley. Don't know when it closed, but the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts was built on its former site in 1971. This info from a friend who attended Montrose in the 40's.
Just out of curiosity, why do you ask?

This post has been edited by 57Tbird: Wednesday, September 6, 2006 at 1:50 PM

[icepickphil]

My father grew up in the Montrose area in the 20s and 30s. He attended Montrose Elementary, Sidney Lanier Junior High, and San Jacinto High School. He often told me stories of spending 25 cents (or "two bits" as he called it) to take the trolley car downtown on Saturdays to see a movie and get a hotdog at James Original Coney Island.

I believe the only one of those schools left that is still open under that name would be Lanier.

I'm familiar with the Montrose area's emergence in the early-70s as the "hippie" and gay community of the city but can anyone comment on what the neighborhood was like in the late-50s to early-60s? Was there ever a beatnik community there?

57Tbird, on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 @ 2:49pm, said:

Montrose Elementary was built in 1913, in the block bounded by Stanford, W. Main, Sulross, and Greeley. Don't know when it closed, but the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts was built on its former site in 1971. This info from a friend who attended Montrose in the 40's.
Just out of curiosity, why do you ask?

[FilioScotia]

WestUNative, on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 @ 3:57pm, said:

You are an angel! I had in my mind the Chartres street, but was unsure if that was correct. When was this map created? Do you have a date?

Lavinia Namendorf was a dear family friend, I have a picture of her, wish I could make the stupid Photobucket work. We were friends with all the teachers there, several of whom lived in West University Place like us. I can name most of them. My mother went to work there in 1943 and stayed there until she became Secretary to Austin E. Hill, M.D., the health director for HISD in the headquarters building downtown.

At the time, this was a very rundown, poor neighborhood. No gangs, no dope, just heartbreaking poverty. The staff used to do incredible things for the kids that probably would not be allowed now. Like paying for their food, buying them clothes and in one case, actually bathing a girl who was so encrusted with dirt you couldn't see her skin. But, I loved the place, being the little mascot roaming the halls, sitting in on big kid classes, winding the Maypole with them, being pampered in the lunchroom in the basement by the school maid, Juanita, in the afternoons with strawberry shortcake. Of course, it was our secret and finally my mom found out and had a fit. Juanita was spending her meagre funds to treat me.

A million thanks for locating it for me, I'll be in town next weekend and will try to drive by and see the location.

The Longfellow school building still exists, I think, but it's not a school anymore. It's now a Houston Police Department sub-station.

[CE_ugh]

isuredid, on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 @ 12:20am, said:

I don't think this can be true because US 59 is right on top of where the school used to be. I don't recall seeing any old schools between the pillars of that freeway.

nope 59 take its space between Chartres and Hamilton Streets.

[FilioScotia]

CE_ugh, on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 @ 2:03am, said:

nope 59 take its space between Chartres and Hamilton Streets.

Actually, Chartres is the feeder for the northbound side of 59 in that part of town. It goes right past the 1955 Longfellow school building between Chartres and St. Emanuel. It's now HPD's South Central sub-station.

WestUNative may be interested to know that even though the old Longfellow school she remembers doesn't exist anymore, the name HW Longfellow lives on at a newer HISD school at another location The current Longfellow Elementary is a magnet feeder school for upper grade level schools for the visual and performing arts. It's on the south side between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link.

Here's a link to it. http://es.houstonisd.org/LongfellowES/

This post has been edited by FilioScotia: Thursday, September 7, 2006 at 8:55 AM