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Wheatley High School At 4801 Providence St.


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  • 2 weeks later...

Apparently the demolition is being halted.....again! Seriously if these people didn't want the demolition to happen then where were these people at the HISD Bond election? Or just HISD board meetings in general? This is getting ridiculous!

 

http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Demolition-of-old-Wheatley-building-on-hold-5845300.php

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Apparently the demolition is being halted.....again! Seriously if these people didn't want the demolition to happen then where were these people at the HISD Bond election? Or just HISD board meetings in general? This is getting ridiculous!

 

http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Demolition-of-old-Wheatley-building-on-hold-5845300.php

 

Who says they weren't at board meetings and protesting this demolition from the start?

 

 

They're desperately trying to maintain the status quo and don't realize everything in Houston (and Texas in particular) is changing around them.

 

The old San Jacinto High School has been able to stick around, get repurposed as the original site of HSPVA, purchased by HCC, and get renovated TWICE since HCC has owned it. I guess they should've maintained the status quo and torn it down in the 70s and put a parking lot there, right?

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

For the last three months, the old Wheatley High School has remained standing with a large hole in its side.

Crews hired by the Houston Independent School District had started to tear down the Fifth Ward building to make way for a facility, but two lawsuits seeking to preserve the 1929 structure have put the demolition on hold.

On Monday, the latest case is scheduled to proceed in a Harris County courtroom. HISD officials plan to ask state District Judge Dan Hinde to dismiss the lawsuit filed by three alumni who live or used to live in the neighborhood. The parties failed to reach an agreement during a private meeting that lasted several hours @ HISD headquarters this week.

Reaction on the ongoing contentious battle over Wheatley High ?

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I haven't been following the Wheatley story too closely, but according to Wikipedia, Wheatley was always problematic and rumors of closure existed even back in the late 1970s, and already the school was rebuilt in 2006.

The Carter Career Center/DeVry Advantage Academy building, which was Wheatley's building seems to be the object in question. Is it 3415 Lyons Avenue?

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Yes, it's 3415 Lyons Avenue. I don't really understand the contempt on this thread for those who want to save Wheatley. Imagine if every historic white high school in Houston were rolled into one - would it get demolished? Not in 100 years. That's basically what this was for the black community - their one historic high school. Plus it was an architectural landmark even without the segregation history.

 

Also, the mention that it "was always problematic" is a red herring. We are talking about a building, not some problematic students from decades ago. (The 2006 reconstruction refers to an entirely different site, btw, and resulted in a bland suburban-looking campus.) Plenty of non-"problematic" students went to this school - do they get to have a history?

 

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Are you sure they didn't attend the meetings? Also, one wonders how well publicized the meetings were. Granted HISD is always having meetings, but unless community residents had made a routine habit of going to school board meetings, would they have known of the demolition plans before late in the process?

 

Lots of unknowns here obviously, but controversial things often fly under the radar (one thinks of ill-publicized freeway expansion meetings), and I don't think there should be a late penalty for objecting to the loss of an 88 year old, rather pretty building.

 

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I'm also interested in the other, later Wheatley school, which was built in the late 40's at 4900 Market and demolished in 2006 for the current suburban-style structure. Apparently it was designed in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright and touted by the city as the finest black school in the South. Has anyone seen a photo??

 

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The old Wheatley High School, circa 1940s, faced Market Street (roughly where the north part of the track & field are now) but also had this cupola-looking thing that was saved and implemented in the new school, same location. It must have some sort of significance.

Frankly, I don't see what's the big problem with a "bland suburban-looking campus" for the current campus. While I probably would've liked to see the older high school renovated and expanded, it's better a "bland suburban-looking campus" than something that screams "ghetto inner-city school", which is probably what the older school invoked, unfortunately.

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  • 1 month later...
  • The title was changed to Wheatley High School At 4801 Providence St.

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