DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — so let's take it from the top. Now, every great institution has a beginning, and this one started with a number that might make you smile: thirty-one girls, seventeen boys, and a dream of public high school education in the city of Austin. That was September of 1881, and what those forty-eight students walked into wasn't some grand stone building with columns and a bell tower.
No sir. They climbed the stairs to the third floor of the West Austin School building, right there at the corner of 11th and Rio Grande. Third floor.
You can almost hear the footsteps. But before a single student set foot on those stairs, somebody had to lay the groundwork. Tax-supported, locally controlled secondary education doesn't just appear out of thin air.
The plans were developed under the leadership of school board President A. P. Wooldridge and Superintendent John B.
Winn. Those two men looked at Austin and said: this city needs a high school department in its school district. And in 1881, they made it so.
Now here's where the story gets a little wandering — in the best possible Texas way. The school grew. Of course it did.
And when you outgrow your space, you move. So Austin High School picked up and moved to the First Baptist Church building. Then to the Temporary State Capitol.
Then — and I do love this detail — to the Smith Opera House. A high school, holding classes in an opera house. Whatever the acoustics were like for geometry, I couldn't tell you, but the marker doesn't say it was a bad arrangement.
All that moving and growing eventually led somewhere permanent. In 1900, the first dedicated high school building was completed, this time at Trinity and 9th. A real address.
A real building. But growth has a way of being relentless, and when the enrollment outgrew the facilities there, the school moved again — this time to the campus of John T. Allan Junior High School on Rio Grande.
And still, the story wasn't finished. In 1975, following the completion of a new complex at this very site, Austin High School moved one more time. More than ninety years of moving, growing, and adapting — and here it landed.
The marker calls it a centennial of public high school education, and it earns that name. For over a century, Austin High School has been a leader in the development of innovative educational programs, maintaining a record of academic excellence that the marker says reflects the community's concern for the quality of education in Austin. Thirty-one girls.
Seventeen boys. A third-floor classroom. And a century of showing up — that's a story worth climbing the stairs for.
What the marker says
A Centennial of Public High School Education Tax supported, locally controlled secondary education began in Austin in 1881 with the establishment of a high school department in the city school district. Plans for implementing the program were developed under the leadership of school board President A. P. Wooldridge and Superintendent John B. Winn. Austin High School opened in September 1881 with an enrollment of 31 girls and 17 boys. Classes were first held on the third floor of West Austin School building at the corner on 11th and Rio Grande. Due to continued growth, classes were later moved to the First Baptist Church building, the Temporary State Capitol, and the Smith Opera House. In 1900 the first high school building was completed at Trinity and 9th. When the enrollment outgrew the facilities there, the high school was moved to the campus of John T. Allan Junior High School on Rio Grande. Austin High School was moved again in 1975, following the completion of a new complex at this site. For over a century, Austin High School has been a leader in the development of innovative educational programs and has maintained a record of academic excellence that reflects the community's concern for the quality of education in Austin. (1981)