Guadalupe High School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little seasoning on top. Way back on December 3, 1849, a group of men in Seguin put pen to paper and chartered what would become Guadalupe High School. Now, thirty men signed on to this thing, and each one of them held a thousand dollars worth of stock.

That was real money, folks. This was the first school in Seguin financed through public subscription, which means the community put their own dollars behind it rather than waiting on somebody else to figure it out. By 1850, the plant was already in use.

They did not let the grass grow under their feet. The man behind the construction was Dr. Joseph E.

Parks, a nationally known chemist who had moved to Seguin all the way from Kentucky. And Dr. Parks did not just oversee the building, he put his own name into the very walls.

The construction was mainly of what the record calls patented Parks concrete. His name, his formula, his building. That two-story structure went on to serve the community in ways that stretched well beyond the classroom.

For many years, church groups used it for worship services. Think about that. A building chartered as a school, built by a chemist with his own patented concrete, became a place where people bowed their heads on Sunday mornings.

Some buildings just have that kind of gravity to them, and this one earned it.

What the marker says

Chartered Dec. 3, 1849; the 30 men in corporation each held $1,000 worth of stock. This was first Seguin school financed through public subscription. Plant was in use in 1850. Dr. Joseph E. Parks, nationally known chemist who had moved here from Kentucky, was in charge of the construction, which was mainly of patented parks concrete. This two-story building was used for many years by church groups, for worship services. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962