DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lamar Junior High School in Hidalgo County. Now settle in, because this one's got a quiet kind of genius hiding in plain sight. Back in 1938, the McAllen School Board said yes — yes to a bond election, yes to funding from the Public Works Administration, and yes to buildin' a high school.
And when they went looking for the mind to design it, they found their man in architect Marion Lee Waller. Now Waller didn't just draw up four walls and a roof. He thought about the air.
This was the Rio Grande Valley, remember — before air conditioning, before the hum of a window unit, before any of that. What you had was heat, and what you needed was a plan. Waller's answer was an L-shaped floor plan, only one room deep.
Classrooms facing east and south, each one opening onto a breezeway, so whatever wind the good Lord sent through that valley could find its way in. Every single room. Maximum circulation, the marker calls it.
Maximum thinking, is what I'd call it. The building itself is something to look at, too — two stories of reinforced concrete and wood framing, dressed up in buff brick, topped with a clay tile roof, and finished with cast stone detailing. Spanish Colonial Revival Style, all the way.
It's a building that knows where it is and looks the part. But here's the thing that gives this story its twist: Lamar High School was a high school for exactly five years. Five.
A new site was developed, the older students moved on, and this campus quietly became what it remains today — a junior high school. Additions have come over the years, but the heart of what Marion Lee Waller drew up in 1938 is still standing. A building built to breathe, still breathin'.
What the marker says
The McAllen School Board authorized construction of Lamar High School in 1938, through a bond election and funding from the Public Works Administration. Architect Marion Lee Waller’s original design included an L-shaped floor plan only one room deep, with east- and south-facing classrooms opening onto breezeways for maximum circulation in the days before air conditioning. The school operated as a high school for only five years, until development of a new site; this campus has continued as a junior high school with several additions. The Spanish Colonial Revival Style two-story reinforced concrete and wood framed building features a buff brick exterior, clay tile roof and cast stone detailing.