San Jacinto High School was a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located at 1300 Holman Street in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

; now part of the Houston Community College Central College, Central Campus. San Jacinto High School was located in the area now known as Midtown. It was a part of the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

(HISD). It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

(NRHP) on December 4, 2012.

History

The campus, built in 1914, initially housed South End Junior High School; it closed in 1926 when the high school opened. It was established in 1926 after Central High School, which was located near

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69. The ...

, was closed. From 1927 until 1934, the campus was also the first home to Houston Junior College, which eventually became the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

. Lamar High School opened in 1937, relieving San Jacinto. In 1962 a technical program was added to the campus. In 1966 HISD purchased a former Hebrew temple,Gore, p
8
Temple Beth Israel,Gore, p
10
that it began using as an annex for San Jacinto since its population was increasing. Elaine Clift Gore, the author of ''Talent Knows No Color: The History of an Arts Magnet High School'', wrote that by fall 1969 San Jacinto's vocational program became "the premier HISD vocational high school". The school was renamed the ''Houston Technical Institute'' on June 1, 1971. The neighborhood program ended in 1971, and the technical program was abolished in 1985.

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Kinder HSPVA, HSPVA or PVA) is a secondary school located at 790 Austin Street in the downtown district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School Distri ...

was housed at San Jacinto from 1971 to 1981.

Houston Community College System Houston Community College (HCC), also known as Houston Community College System (HCCS) is a Public college, public community college system that operates community colleges in Houston, Texas, Houston, Missouri City, Texas, Missouri City, Greater ...

purchased the school grounds. The San Jacinto Memorial Museum is on the school grounds. In 2014, Skanska USA Building completed $35 million in work to update and restore the San Jacinto Memorial Building, which was originally built in phases between 1914 and 1936. Hidden, original windows were encountered during the demolition and restored/left in place as a design element. Other new elements were introduced including six 5,000-pound beams that have been installed to enable modern, column-free bathrooms, and an elevator tower, and four stair towers added to the rear of the building. In the auditorium, seating, plaster, and flooring were redone as well.

Demographics

In 1969, 51.6% of San Jacinto's students were black and 48.4% were White. The figure for White students included non-Hispanic white students and Hispanics together. For several years prior to the 1970 desegregation, HISD had a policy stating that students wanting to take a vocational program could transfer to another school that offered that program whether it was a "white" school or a "black" school if the program was not offered at their zoned school. In 1937 there were five students of Mexican origin enrolled at San Jacinto.

Notable alumni

* Albert Bel Fay (1930), Houston businessman and Republican party activist * Marva Black Beck, Texas politician *

Young Bussey Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American ro ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

of the NFL - killed in action during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

* Dr. Denton Cooley, heart surgeon Distinguished HISD Alumni
," ''

''. Retrieved on June 30, 2009. *

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

(1933), television journalist *

A. J. Foyt, Jr. Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...

, auto racer (also attended Pershing and Hamilton middle schools and Lamar High School - did not graduate from San Jacinto) * Rabbi

Jimmy Kessler James Lee Kessler
, Hebrew Union College, 12 March 1997, Retrieved on 2012-03-13. (born December 10, 1945), ...

, founder of the Texas Jewish Historical Society * James E. Lyon, Houston developer and Republican politician * Glenn McCarthy, oilman and entrepreneur * Maxine Mesinger, gossip columnistMaxine Mesinger Papers, 1965-2001
"

. Retrieved on November 20, 2011. * Jerry J. Moore, real estate developerTexas Monthly: "Moore of the Same - Until" by Claire Poole
October 1998 * Diane Ravitch, former US Assistant Secretary of Education, author, historian *

Gale Storm Josephine Owaissa Cottle (April 5, 1922 – June 27, 2009), known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, '' My Litt ...

(born Josephine Cottle), actress and singerO'Hare, Peggy.
Houston's Storm led American Idol life in '30s Margie star who died at 87 won U.S. talent competition here
." Tuesday June 30, 2009. B3. Retrieved on July 23, 2009. * David Westheimer, author * Kathy Whitmire, former Mayor of Houston

References

* Gore, Elaine Clift. ''Talent Knows No Color: The History of an Arts Magnet High School'' (Research in curriculum and instruction)

Information Age Publishing Information Age Publishing Inc. (IAP) is a publisher of academic books, primarily in the fields of education and management. It was founded in 1999 by George Johnson and is located in Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most popul ...

, 2007. , 9781593117610.

Notes

External links