Lanier Middle School At 2600 Woodhead St.

[LarryDallas]

Edit: This was designed by Jones & Tabor Architects a long with Rezin D. Steele.

I was in class of 93 there and I suppose I started this thread cause I read some great ones on other schools. It would be cool to find someone who went there at the time around me. Lanier was something else. The building was magnificent and historic; 1929 was when they built it. As a kid I was just overwhelmed by how big the school was.

Anyway, what are your memories of the school and who are the standout teachers?

The school used to be so segregated in terms of who came there to learn something and who came there to eat lunch and go to gym. The vangaurd program was not all that hard but just involved tons of busy work. I think I did more homework there than in all of high school and college combined. I do recall that they used to burglarize the lockers in the gym dressing rooms quite a bit. The juvenile criminals were so brazen they would do it out in the open with everyone watching. They are probably in adult prisons being sodomized each day these days so oh well.

Of the teachers a few stand out in my mind after all of these years:

Mr. Siros - I will remember this guy till the day I die. He taught theater arts on the 3rd floor in that room with college style seating and painted all black. Whenever he was losing an argument or the class got loud he would scream "hey" and everyone would shutup. When we were in other classes you could hear this guy screaming from down the hall and you knew he was going insane.

Mr. Siegel - 7th grade English lit. He was dating the Spanish teacher Ms. Barazi from across the hall for a while but when she dumped him he decided to become gay overnight. The dude was really creepy and would talk about weird stuff like how rubbing oil on your body to tan is dangerous in the sun. WTF?

Mr. Wilson - 8th grade reading This guy was AWESOME! His clothes were always ironed to perfection and he spoke so well meaning he varied sentance structure and used advance vocabulary at a middle school level. His professionalism rubbed off on his students and I am so glad I decided to take his class instead of a foreign language so I could take an extra year of gym in high school.

Mrs. Klemm/Ms. Miller - she was the 6th grade math teacher that had all sorts of love life problems. I think she was divorcing her husband while we were in her class. Anyway, she had an obsession with alcohol bottles that squirt to clean the slides on overhead projectors. The immage of dry erase marker watered up is burned in my mind for life.

Mr. Yeargin - 8th grade English Lit. ...this guy was way too sophisticated and polsihed to be an 8th grade teacher. I felt pity for the man cause the students never respected him. I suppose having been forced to read Charles Dickens and Bronte bothered the kids and I admit I did not like it at the time as well. I dunno, this guy seemed highly intelligent to me.

Mr. Garret - 7th grade science....he was working on his masters to get to become a marine biologist so he did not care much about what we learned or did in class. Rice uinversity had built a science lab in Lanier and we were using email to talk to kids in the UK back in 1992 (a very high tech thing for 13 yrd olds at the time). The emails were just BS....not a hint of educational content...more along the lines of "Hi how are you?" "Fine and you?"......This guy used to give etra credit like crazy and make us hold it until grade cycles were ending. Then you took up the papers he signed and he added your points. He issued so much EC people ended up with 108 points on a 100 point scale. He always made sex jokes as well.

Mr. Holliger - WORST teacher in the school. I understand he is still there. He went to UT and played basketball there until his knees went out. God this guy only taught chemistry and physics to the 2 kids in the room that got 100% of what he was saying. He would have these TAs work as slaves for him to write his notes and lessons.

[VicMan]

My sister attended Lanier (I did not attend Lanier, though).

The "worst" elements she remembers are girl fights and stink bombs.

I believe she had Hollinger, but I would have to ask her about him.

[LarryDallas]

Man I remember the stink bombs! They used to use them all of the time around 90-91.

The girl fights I am clueless about. Ask your sister and post or have her join and tell the stories.

[57Tbird]

Well... I went there 1947-1950 when it was known as Lanier Jr. High. I have a "Purple Pup" newspaper from that era. Do they still have it?

[VicMan]

Well... I went there 1947-1950 when it was known as Lanier Jr. High. I have a "Purple Pup" newspaper from that era. Do they still have it?

LMS indeed still has the Purple Pup as its mascot.

LMS still includes River Oaks, Afton Oaks, Highland Village, Boulevard Oaks, Southampton, and half of Montrose in its attendance boundaries.

Edited March 25, 2007 by VicMan

[VicMan]

Here is one other aspect my sister remembers:

Drug dogs sometimes appeared at Lanier. One one occasion, police arrested one kid in her Algebra I class for some drug - My sister does not remember the specifics.

My sister took Vanguard courses and took Dance instead of Physical Education.

She told me she doesn't remember very many details about the girl fights. She never saw girl fights; she merely heard about them from other people.

[sevfiv]

oh the memories

i remember a few of the above teachers, the two courtyards, drug dogs, and the "pup house"

[TAK]

i went to lanier for 6th and 7th grade (vanguard) in the early 80s.

i remember a girl getting run over one day by a guy who lost control of his car in the bus driveway. i was on the bus, he drove up the driveway, ran over a girl and his car got lodged between the bus i was on and the building - with the little girl still under the car.

and i remember Mr. Baugh, in his smug, holier-than-thou way, telling me he hated football and football players because the only purpose of football was for the players to hurt each other... chillout, man, i was 12 years old... get back in your volvo...

purple izods and purple polos were a big deal...

[LarryDallas]

I remember the pup house. It was just a holding place until those criminals got old enough to be sent to a federal prison. How they put it right next to the library was odd. I guess they wanted to teach them to read. Speaking of library does Mr. Fendel still work there?

That dude was so creepy looking.

[MexAmerican_Moose]

I was in class of 93 there and I suppose I started this thread cause I read some great ones on other schools. It would be cool to find someone who went there at the time around me. Lanier was something else. The building was magnificent and historic; 1929 was when they built it. As a kid I was just overwhelmed by how big the school was.

Anyway, what are your memories of the school and who are the standout teachers?

The school used to be so segregated in terms of who came there to learn something and who came there to eat lunch and go to gym. The vangaurd program was not all that hard but just involved tons of busy work. I think I did more homework there than in all of high school and college combined. I do recall that they used to burglarize the lockers in the gym dressing rooms quite a bit. The juvenile criminals were so brazen they would do it out in the open with everyone watching. They are probably in adult prisons being sodomized each day these days so oh well.

Of the teachers a few stand out in my mind after all of these years:

Mr. Siros - I will remember this guy till the day I die. He taught theater arts on the 3rd floor in that room with college style seating and painted all black. Whenever he was losing an argument or the class got loud he would scream "hey" and everyone would shutup. When we were in other classes you could hear this guy screaming from down the hall and you knew he was going insane.

Mr. Siegel - 7th grade English lit. He was dating the Spanish teacher Ms. Barazi from across the hall for a while but when she dumped him he decided to become gay overnight. The dude was really creepy and would talk about weird stuff like how rubbing oil on your body to tan is dangerous in the sun. WTF?

Mr. Wilson - 8th grade reading This guy was AWESOME! His clothes were always ironed to perfection and he spoke so well meaning he varied sentance structure and used advance vocabulary at a middle school level. His professionalism rubbed off on his students and I am so glad I decided to take his class instead of a foreign language so I could take an extra year of gym in high school.

Mrs. Klemm/Ms. Miller - she was the 6th grade math teacher that had all sorts of love life problems. I think she was divorcing her husband while we were in her class. Anyway, she had an obsession with alcohol bottles that squirt to clean the slides on overhead projectors. The immage of dry erase marker watered up is burned in my mind for life.

Mr. Yeargin - 8th grade English Lit. ...this guy was way too sophisticated and polsihed to be an 8th grade teacher. I felt pity for the man cause the students never respected him. I suppose having been forced to read Charles Dickens and Bronte bothered the kids and I admit I did not like it at the time as well. I dunno, this guy seemed highly intelligent to me.

Mr. Garret - 7th grade science....he was working on his masters to get to become a marine biologist so he did not care much about what we learned or did in class. Rice uinversity had built a science lab in Lanier and we were using email to talk to kids in the UK back in 1992 (a very high tech thing for 13 yrd olds at the time). The emails were just BS....not a hint of educational content...more along the lines of "Hi how are you?" "Fine and you?"......This guy used to give etra credit like crazy and make us hold it until grade cycles were ending. Then you took up the papers he signed and he added your points. He issued so much EC people ended up with 108 points on a 100 point scale. He always made sex jokes as well.

Mr. Holliger - WORST teacher in the school. I understand he is still there. He went to UT and played basketball there until his knees went out. God this guy only taught chemistry and physics to the 2 kids in the room that got 100% of what he was saying. He would have these TAs work as slaves for him to write his notes and lessons.

i also went to Lanier Middle School for the Vanguard Program 99-02....i had Mr. Yeargin and Mr Hollinger....Mr. Yeargin was very smart but he could get boring at times...the best part about Mr. Hollinger's class was building a mouse trap car

ha, i remember the Pup House, i think i went there once.....anybody remember the French teacher's name? the German teacher was Mr. Nielsen

[VicMan]

There is a Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanier_Middle_School_(Houston)

[ooires]

I was there the last year it was a Jr. High School (1980-1981). I never got to go to a 9th grade prom since, after my 8th grade year, they converted to a "middle school" and I became the first 9th grade class (Vanguard only) at Jesse H. Jones High School. (Sigh) Such is life . . . .

[ArchitecturalPRGirl]

My brother went there around that time. He is 29 now and his name was Sean but his real name was Shani. He had a friend named Carl Lazo. Know either?

[LarryDallas]

I'm 29 now as well but the name is not ringing any bells at all. Was he in vangaurd?

I completely lost touch with everyone except 1 person that I went to Lanier with. This is pretty sad and I kind of wish everyone from there had gone to the same high school instead of this magnet program where we got sent all over the city to other schools. Three years went by in the blink of an eye. I can't remember clearly but I think 8th grade was actually enjoyable cause the work load went down.

Does Detrich Wagoner ring any bells for you? He painted the mural in the cafeteria in the spring of 1993 as a gift from the graduating class. It didn't get done on time so he worked on it during the summer and we never got to see it. The guy is probably an art professor somewhere now.

I heard Mrs. Levy retired sometime in the late 90s. She used to teach Texas history and I LOVED her class casue she bothered to learn everyone's name and got us all involved.

I ran into coach Cole of the gym class around 1999 in the med center but she obviously did not remember me having been in her class in 1991.

Mr. Nielsen is still there? wow....I never took his class but he seemed very dull.

When did Mrs. Lanclose leave as principle? I can clearly remember she has a new Mercedes Benz SL roadster and would go shopping at Foleys downtown during school hours. Mrs. Monahan (director of the pup house) apparently got the top job after her.

I've also heard that the school is now kind of as close as you can get to private school without actually being private school these days. Do the students these days get dropped off in Ferraris? They have torn down a lot of the older low rent properties in that area in the past 10-15 years.

Anyway...just add whatever info you want.....that 3 years of my life is a big blank.

[arisegundo]

Class of '98 Vanguard here. I had Yeargin and Hollinger and liked them both. Yeargin's English (or was it "Language Arts?") class wasn't bad. I loved his lessons on The Crucible, book and movie. He covered the bare butts with a manila folder to protect our innocent minds. The real fun was "Enrichment" class, basically an empty spot in everyone's schedule that he just let be a free for all. Spent a lot of time playing Road Rash! on the Macintosh.

I liked Hollinger's emphasis on notes when I had him for Physical Science. Got me into the note-taking habit, which served me well all the way through college. Say what you will but more of his class stuck with me than the ostensibly more advanced science classes I took years later. We did "Operation Egg Drop" near the end of the year, tossing eggs off the third floor staircase window in protective casings we designed. My egg in a modified Downy ball survived mostly intact.

I had Ms. Cole for sixth-grade PE. It was the next year, I believe, that she got married. "Wait, to a MAN?" was one girl's response. Future congressional candidate Jim Henley was my social studies teacher and also ran the Ecology club. We watched the OJ verdict in his class. Didn't see too much of him after sixth grade considering his sister's legal troubles at the time.

Other memories: Walter Cronkite visiting for the big 70th anniversary party in '96, and his historical significance being totally lost on my peers. A girl named Crystal being nearly killed when her school bus was shot up on Halloween. The debut of Lanier's first website, which was on Rice's domain and pretty much the first school website in town. White boys moshing to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the 8th-grade dance while the minority kids stood around befuddled. Splattering modeling clay on the ceiling in Ms. Dickey's art class. Bus ride through the heart of Montrose every morning and afternoon.

Mr. Monaghan took over after Lanclos left in '99 or 2000. He got hairplugs on Eyewitness News.

Edited June 5, 2008 by arisegundo

[LarryDallas]

Mr. Monaghan took over after Lanclos left in '99 or 2000. He got hairplugs on Eyewitness News.

HAHAHA..I do remember he had a comb-over around 1993. The guy always wore suspenders instead of a belt. The administration's office space in that school is magnificnet. I opted out of gym and worked in the mail room during 8th grade because I had broken my arm earlier in the summer and it was still in a cast. I met Lanclose in her office the day I started. The place was jaw dropping....deep carpets, highly polished ebony furniture, etc...like a 5 star hotel. Most other school just have particle board covered with simulated wood furniture.

Lanclose had the dream job.

Was Mr. Moore (art teacher) still there?

He bought a new Mitsubishi 3000GT in 1991 when they first came out. This car was well out of the price range of what a teacher's salary could buy. He also dresses in silk shirts daily and had lots of expensive jewelry/watches. I think he was a drug dealer, pimp, or gigolo on the side.

Who was the dean of instruction when you were there?

[native_Houstonian]

i went to lanier for 6th and 7th grade (vanguard) in the early 80s.

i remember a girl getting run over one day by a guy who lost control of his car in the bus driveway. i was on the bus, he drove up the driveway, ran over a girl and his car got lodged between the bus i was on and the building - with the little girl still under the car.

and i remember Mr. Baugh, in his smug, holier-than-thou way, telling me he hated football and football players because the only purpose of football was for the players to hurt each other... chillout, man, i was 12 years old... get back in your volvo...

purple izods and purple polos were a big deal...

Tak,

I was there during that time, as well. I remember that incident now that I read your post. I attended 7th and 8th Vanguard from Fall 82-Spring 84.

Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy my time there. Not one of the popular kids. Long bus ride from the Heights. Glad those days are behind me.

[sevfiv]

I remember Mr. Moore and his silk shirts. I also had Hollinger, Yeargin, Henley, Garrett, and a ton others i can't remember. I have the old yearbooks somewhere...

[LarryDallas]

I remember Mr. Moore and his silk shirts. I also had Hollinger, Yeargin, Henley, Garrett, and a ton others i can't remember. I have the old yearbooks somewhere...

What years did you go there?

I was in Vangaurd from 91-93. Mr. Freeman was also a great teacher. I think he became an administrator in subsequent years. He used to teach American history in 8th grade and made the presentation fun. He also made us do a political project in 1992 during the election months where we went to the Bush, Clinton, and Perrot Houston campaign HQs and got info, buttons, stickers, etc...I must still have that stuff somewhere in my house...wow...it has been 16 years already!

I wasn't a popular kid in that school of roughtly 3200 but I kind of started liking it in 8th grade cause I got used to things. I think the block schedule format was put in starting in 92-93. We used to go to 7 classes a day prior to that and the day flew by with less than an hour each place.

There was some guy named Seth Stone that the whole school worshiped....I think he was class of 91 or 92. Even the teachers used to treat the guy like a VIP.

[Latetotheparty]

i was there from 1972-1975 ...... when it was still lanier junior high school..... (7th, 8th and 9th grades)...... have memories of a few teachers, but the only ones whose names comes to mind at the moment are Mr. Mooney .... he taught music.... and Mrs. Ayers, who taugth 7th grade English..... think she retired right after I survived her class. I also remember a French teacher who taught us French with a REALLY thick East Texas accent and a history teacher whose name I think was Mr. Jones (?)...... oh ... and an art teacher named Mrs. Claypool.

this was long before middle schools and vanguard programs..... and back when the teachers were still allowed to give misbehaving students (boys mostly) "pops." Towards the very end of the year, the 9th graders had a "formal" day .... girls wore long, prom-type dresses and boys wore tuxes..... and yep, our sports teams were the purple pups, but don't think we had year books for junior high at the time..... think i might still have a school newspaper or two somewhere.....

[jlgil1978]

Class of 92 here.

[PuroAztlan]

I went there for the vanguard program, 91-92. I had Ms. Swantek.

Do you remember the big albino kid?

[Vertigo58]

Does anyone know when this school was built?

I was trying to figure out the timeline of when very simliar other local schools appeared of this same style of architecture. Could it be early or late 1920's or 30's?

Looks very much like well...most other inner city educational structures when the city was small in population.

Did anyone ever get to jump onto the roof or similar goofy stories? We did over at Jackson and got insulation all over our crazy bodies. Yep real fun...

[arisegundo]

1926

[LarryDallas]

I went there for the vanguard program, 91-92. I had Ms. Swantek.

Do you remember the big albino kid?

I took her class in 91. She taught english I think....probably a hippie of the 60s cause she was obsessed with Simon and Garfunkel.

The albino kid was named Trevor and was very good at art.

There was also a kid that went there during that time who was burned like on 100% of his body. I did not know him perosnally but the story was that he was in a car wreck where his dad's car bust into flames and they did not manage to get him out in time. His skin was all scar tissue but surprisingly the other kids got along with him well. Usually at that age (even adults) lack the maturity to just let things be and not make a big deal out of something that is in someone's past.

[Geoff8201]

I was there for the 94-95, 95-96 and 96-97 school years.

Man, all these names take me on a trip down memory lane.

I remember Mr. Sirois (spelling?) he was the Media 2000 teacher, and that guy could yell and scream if there was a student he disliked or that acted up. I recall he was also a part time Usher for the Rockets back when they were at the Compaq Center.

Mr Nielsen the German teacher... my most vivid memory of him was that when he sneezed, he sneezed really loud... and was always giving out Tolberones.

Mr. Huffman, 8th grade Science, the alternative to taking Hollinger's Physical Science class.

Mrs. Williams - 8th grade English

Mrs. Miller - 6th grade math, during my year she was pregnant and had given birth so a sub named Mr. Cantao took over her class for a few months.

Mrs. Moore, 6th grade science, fun teacher.

Ms. Wiegel, she taught 7th grade science. I remember the first day we got to play with fire! She was an obese lady whom I wonder is still with us. I remember she had some health problems and had to get her gallbladder taken out.

So many others but I'm drawing a blank... will edit if I think of more. Wow, getting close to 12 years out of that place.

[Michelle C]

Class of 1960 for me. I have a good friend here in Smithville that was also in my class of 60. We were both on the city planning and zoning commission here and I kept noticing that there was something about her that reminded me of somebody I knew. I just couldn't put my finger on it. She and I got to talking one day and found out we had both attended Lanier at the same time and we also shared some classes together. All of a sudden it all started coming together. It was refreshing to meet an old friend that I had went to school with some fifty years later in a town that was a hundred and twenty miles away. Sometimes it can be a small world. I still have contact with a few friends that I went to school with at Lanier. The assistant principal was Mr. Stewart. His daughter was a class mate and she now lives in the Brian-College Station area. Mrs. Rubright was principal. My favorite teacher there was Mrs. Chalmers.

[Gator Purify]

Class of '97 Vanguard.  Thanks so much for starting this thread!  While I always held Lanier in high regard, I never looked back on my time there fondly until these posts brought back good memories.

 

I was there from '94 to '97, which is about as "90s" as it gets.  Pogs, tacos (basically small paper projectiles that are launched from your fingers with a rubber band; the bad kids used to do things like put staples in them), these weird nerdy trading cards with anime characters (I forget what they're called), Treasure Trolls, friendship bracelets, lanyards.  The white/Jewish/Filipino/Vanguard kids listened to alternative music like Nirvana, Aerosmith, Green Day, and Soundgarden, while the others jammed Tupac and Junior Mafia (Lil' Kim & Biggie).  We were the last class before uniforms were instituted.  Sadly, one of my classmates was killed in a skiing accident during a school year.  She was really pretty and popular, and I (along with most of the guys) had a crush on her.  It was a big deal when they served Chick-Fil-A in the cafeteria.  Emeka Okafor, future NCAA basketball player of the year for UConn, was my football teammate and friend/acquaintance.  A handful of my classmates ended up going to Harvard.  My bus driver was Mr. Marino and he drove bus 8285. 

 

Mr. Bordelon for 6th grade (I think) math.  I liked him.  What I remember most is a boy stabbing his female classmate with a pencil.

Mr. Henley for 6th grade social studies.  He's a legend at Lanier.  Awesome teacher.  Shameless in brainwashing us to like the University of Arkansas ("whoo pig suey!").  We put on a mock OJ trial at the end of the year.

Mr. Nielsen for German.  I can only say numbers 1-10 in German, but I probably ate about 20 Toblerones because of him.

Mr. Moore for art??  If Mr. Moore is a black dude, then he taught 8th grade art.  That class was lazy as hell, lol.

I had Mr. Yeargin, too, but I don't remember him.

Ms. Haynes. [insert expletive] This &*^%$ ruined middle school for me.  Piece of *&@% math teacher always talked down to people and bragged nonstop about her Prairie View degree.  My mom had to meet with her because she kept marking my grades down even though I had correct answers.  She taught this unnecessarily long math that was just busy work.  Spent 1-2 hours doing homework for her class alone.  Ugh.

Mr. Green.  School librarian who reportedly died of AIDS.  He looked sick at the time.

Principal Lanclos seemed like a really cool lady. 

 

Lanier was incredible.  Beautiful building.  Great neighborhood.  Great legacy.  If my kids aren't in private school for 6th-8th grades, I'll want them to go there.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Gator Purify

[hbcu]

I knew alot of Lanier folks but they never lived out there....HISD is finally cracking down on certain schools robbing the district of desired students

[SG0403327]

On 3/24/2007 at 9:06 PM, VicMan said:

LMS indeed still has the Purple Pup as its mascot.

LMS still includes River Oaks, Afton Oaks, Highland Village, Boulevard Oaks, Southampton, and half of Montrose in its attendance boundaries.

Just curious.  My husband's mother Cherie Jacqueline Turner attended Lanier Junior High School in Spring 1946 - Spring 1949.  I wonder if anyone that attended during those years might remember her.  She was my husband's mother and she died in 1966.  I have been researching her childhood to make memories for my husband and his sisters, but am having a hard time finding anything about her high school years.  I do know she did not graduate, because she got married in April of 1950, her senior year.  It would be fun to find someone that knew her that could maybe tell a story about her.  Anyone?