DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker's the word on this one, friends, and I'm just here to pass it along. September 5, 1892. Two Angleton residents walked up and did something that doesn't happen every day.
They donated one of the original town blocks, right near this very site, to the city. For school purposes. Just like that.
Now the land was a start, but a school needs walls and a roof. So the citizens of Angleton passed the hat, and they came up with two hundred dollars. Two hundred dollars bought them a frame building, and that frame building became the first home for Angleton students.
It also doubled as a meeting house for lectures, programs, and services. One building doing a lot of work. Enrollment climbed quickly.
The community kept adding to the structure as needed, patching it out, stretching it further. By 1897, Angleton was incorporated as a school district. And that same year, a brand new brick building went up.
Solid. Permanent. The kind of thing you build when you mean business.
Then came 1900. The storm. That brick building was destroyed.
But the people of Angleton didn't fold. They replaced it. Soon.
You'd think that might be enough hard luck for one school district, but 1909 brought another storm, and that second brick building was destroyed too. Here's where you see what a community is really made of. The citizens voted to enlarge the district from 12 to 25 square miles, and they approved the construction of another brick facility, bigger than what came before.
They named it Albert Sidney Johnston School, after one of the county's famous former citizens. The community kept growing. Within a few years, a new high school was erected.
In 1931 the district was serving eleven grades instead of ten. Then in about 1940, it extended all the way to twelve grades. Now the marker is honest about something else too.
Separate schools for African American and Hispanic students were established and maintained until widespread integration was achieved in the 1960s. That chapter belongs in the telling. The town kept annexing rural land.
Enrollment climbed higher. The schools got more crowded. The district kept reaching outward.
And by the end of the twentieth century, the Angleton School District encompassed 396 square miles. Two residents donated one block in 1892. That's where it started.
The rest is what a community decides to do with a beginning.
What the marker says
On September 5, 1892, two Angleton residents donated one of the original town blocks near this site to the city for school purposes. Citizens contributed two hundred dollars for a frame building to house the first classes for Angleton students and serve as a meeting house for lectures, programs and services. Enrollment increased quickly, and the community made additions to the structure as needed. In 1897 Angleton was incorporated as a school district. A new brick building erected that year was destroyed in the 1900 storm but was soon replaced. The people of Angleton took pride in their school system and its support. The city touted its academic program to attract new residents. Citizens continued to demonstrate their dedication to the district by voting to enlarge the district from 12 to 25 square miles and approving the construction of another, larger brick facility after the second brick building was destroyed in a 1909 storm. The new structure was called "Albert Sidney Johnston School" for one of the county's famous former citizens. The community continued to grow, and within a few years a new high school was erected. In 1931 the school district served eleven grades instead of ten, and in about 1940 the district extended its program to twelve grades. Separate schools for African American and Hispanic students were established until widespread integration was achieved in the 1960s. The town annexed more rural land, resulting in a still-higher enrollment and more crowding in the schools. The Angleton School District continued to grow, and by the end of the twentieth century encompassed 396 square miles. (2000)