Mineral Wells High School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. Back in the early years of the twentieth century, Mineral Wells was growing. Growing fast enough that the voters looked around at what they had for a high school and decided they needed something better.

So in 1913, they approved a bond issue, and that decision set everything in motion. Contractor J. S.

Murphy took the job, and by 1914 the building was done. Just one year from vote to finished walls. Now that is moving with purpose.

The following spring, the class of 1915 walked across whatever passed for a stage in that brand new building, twenty-four students strong, the first graduates to come out of those doors. Twenty-four. You remember that number, because that building was going to see a lot more where they came from.

And it did. Year after year, class after class, Mineral Wells kids filled those halls. The building itself was no plain box, either.

It had Mission Revival style parapets along the roofline, and polychromatic brickwork up there catching the light, giving the whole structure a look that said this community meant business about education. Decades rolled by. The enrollment kept climbing, the town kept changing, and eventually the day came when Mineral Wells needed a newer, bigger high school.

The class of 1953 was the last group to graduate from that building before the new one opened. But here is the thing about a well-built structure in a community that values what it has. They didn't walk away from it.

The old high school became a junior high. Then it became an elementary school. It kept serving Mineral Wells children all the way until 1973.

And even then, the story wasn't over. In 2001, interior renovations began to give it yet another life, this time as a community center. One building.

Voters in 1913. A contractor named Murphy. Twenty-four graduates in 1915.

And Mineral Wells, still finding uses for what it built.

What the marker says

Mineral Wells voters approved a bond issue in 1913 to build a new high school, reflecting the community's growth during the first decades of the 20th century. Contractor J. S. Murphy completed the construction in 1914, and the class of 1915, with 24 students, was the first to graduate. Enrollment increased over the years, and the class of 1953 was the last to graduate before the new high school was built. This building, featuring Mission Revival style parapets and polychromatic brickwork along the roofline, served as a junior high and then an elementary school until 1973. Interior renovations for its new use as a community center began in 2001. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001