Historic Houston Schools

[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]

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]

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]

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)

"

Edited August 25, 2006 by VicMan

[KewpieCleaners]

San Jac?

[VicMan]

San Jac?

It closed in the late 1970s...

[musicman]

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]

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?

Edited September 6, 2006 by 57Tbird

[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?

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]

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]

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]

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/

Edited September 7, 2006 by FilioScotia

[gnu]

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/

i think they may have only recently (within the last couple of years) demolished the building. the police substation had used it (as you said). i think they are building (or have built) a larger facility across two blocks.

if you look on google maps, doesn't the building look similar to the same outline as the old longfellow building shown on the sanborn map posted earlier (but with an addition to the north). but then sanborn shows it in a different position on the block though...closer to chartres. hmmmm.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...m=1&iwloc=A

Edited September 7, 2006 by gnu

[FilioScotia]

i think they may have only recently (within the last couple of years) demolished the building. the police substation had used it (as you said). i think they are building (or have built) a larger facility across two blocks.

if you look on google maps, doesn't the building look similar to the same outline as the old longfellow building shown on the sanborn map posted earlier (but with an addition to the north). but then sanborn shows it in a different position on the block though...closer to chartres. hmmmm.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...m=1&iwloc=A

The phone book lists the South Central Substation at 2201 St. Emanuel, which I believe, is the block where the old school was. I'm almost 100 percent certain that the building in the Google map photo is the former 1955 Longfellow school building. (notice how I covered my butt on that)

[WestUNative]

The only way to solve this is for me to look. I can tell you that the school was as shown on the Sanborn map. If you pulled a car up to curb on Chartres, you stepped across a sidewalk and almost immediately began climbing those very high stairs to the front door. And the building was in the center of the block.

I'm heading down there tomorrow, won't have my own car, at mercy of others, but I will try to get someone to drive me past if at all possible. It I accomplish Mission Improbable, I will take digi photos of whatever is there and share when I return next week.

Stay tuned.

And thanks for all of you helping to solve this for me!

[FilioScotia]

The only way to solve this is for me to look. I can tell you that the school was as shown on the Sanborn map. If you pulled a car up to curb on Chartres, you stepped across a sidewalk and almost immediately began climbing those very high stairs to the front door. And the building was in the center of the block.

I'm heading down there tomorrow, won't have my own car, at mercy of others, but I will try to get someone to drive me past if at all possible. It I accomplish Mission Improbable, I will take digi photos of whatever is there and share when I return next week.

Stay tuned.

And thanks for all of you helping to solve this for me!

I'm sure the old building you remember has been gone for a long time. The building that's now -- or was -- a police substation was built in 1955.

[WestUNative]

Thanks, Filio, I couldn't imagine it still standing, it seems to me when they opened the new one with the same name, it was doomed. It seriously was ancient already in the early 1940s. And now the "new" one is moving to yet another new building, damn, I do not feel that old.

I would like to drive by just to see that I won't recognize a thing. Always shocking, but interesting. I also cannot imagine letting that whole city block go unused.

[WestUNative]

I finally dragged the archives out of the storage room and surely enough, found some old Longfellow Elementary photos of my mother's.

Front of school, my mother is on the far right in dark dress - Orthopedics Class 1951

As isuredid mentioned, the principal, Miss Lavinia Namendorf

Cafeteria in "basement" actually ground level and Custodian, Juanita, who took such great care of me.

[ImTomTerrific]

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?

I was a student at Montrose Elementary in the late 60's. My mother was a teacher there. It has been reported in several places (Wikipedia included) that the school was demolished in 1971 to make room for HSPVA, but in actuality it was 1981. The school was a beautiful mission style stucco structure. The entire school was built around a courtyard and all of the rooms opened to an outdoor corridor that surrounded the courtyard. In each corner of the courtyard was a mosaic tile bench with climbing roses on trellis'. In the center of the courtyard was the cafeteria. All of the rooms had hardwood floors that the custodians would oil. There was no air conditioning, but large double hung windows that we would open from the top and bottom with huge fans to try and keep us cool. Plus, each room had a "cloak room". In those days the kids were the crossing guards or "The Patrol" as we were called. We had huge bamboo poles with "STOP" flags and stood at each corner of the school grounds to help the other students cross. During that period (1965-1969) Montrose was experiencing Urban Flight and much of the neighborhood stood empty. That was the period in which the "hippies" began moving in because it was cheap to live there. I always say (tongue in cheek) that I went to school with the hippies kids and their names were "Dawn" and "Sun" and "Moon". When the school was about to be demolished my mother was invited to collect a piece of memorilia. So, in her backyard now sits one of the mosaic tile benches that had originally graced the beautiful courtyard. I wish I had pictures of the school, but unfortunately the only ones I have are of the inside of the classrooms when they took our group pictures.

[VicMan]

I was a student at Montrose Elementary in the late 60's. My mother was a teacher there. It has been reported in several places (Wikipedia included) that the school was demolished in 1971 to make room for HSPVA, but in actuality it was 1981.

http://www.hspva.org/policies/ says it is 1971.

[WestUNative]

To isuredid,

No, not all the kids were polio victims, but some were. Notice the braces, a real tip-off. During the polio epidemic, many were unable to attend school, especially those in the horrid "iron lungs." If you have not seen these atrocities, I suggest you look it up. My aunt initiated an HISD program, Homebound Teachers, whereby she and others went from home to home to teach those unfortunate children. Ultimately her students included those with Cerebral Palsy and other ailments.

I am going to digress a bit on this subject to pay homage to the brave people of the times. The Homebound kids were so afflicted, then isolated, it was truly sad. At least they were receiving some education and something else to think about. That was not enough for my aunt, Helen Lou Childers. She organized a Christmas Party for all her students. How on earth to accomplish? Well, she called up Paul Bosch and asked for his help. She arranged for a large enough venue and Paul rounded up his stable of wrestlers and some big trucks. These burly guys managed to pick up the iron lung victims and transport them to and from the party. It was a singular, joyous event.

Edited October 3, 2006 by WestUNative

[gonzo1976]

Many of those schools looked fantastic back then.

[VicMan]

Is there a source about HSPVA being in the San Jac building?

[Alpha]

Removed post

Edited October 19, 2006 by Alpha