DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker — so let's see what the record has to say about this place. Now, before we get rolling, consider what it means to build something that outlasts every purpose you ever imagined for it. That's the story of this particular patch of Houston ground.
It started in 1913, when somebody had the ambition — and the budget — to raise a classical revival style structure right here. Impressive is the word the marker uses, and I'm inclined to believe it. When South End Junior High School opened its doors in 1914, seven hundred and fifty students walked in.
Seven hundred and fifty. That is not a small beginning. The school did what good institutions do: it grew.
By 1923, South End Junior High had become a senior high school. Three years on, in 1926, it took a new name — San Jacinto High School. A name with some Texas weight behind it.
Here's where the story starts to get interesting. In 1927, Houston Junior College — predecessor, the marker tells us, to the University of Houston — began offering night classes right here in this building. So in the mornings and afternoons, high school students.
Come nightfall, college. The building kept pace with the ambition being poured into it. In 1929, an east wing went up — twenty classrooms, a boys' gymnasium, and a lunch room.
Then 1936 brought something grander still: an art deco style west wing, with classrooms, a girls' gymnasium, and an eighteen-hundred-seat auditorium. Eighteen hundred seats. In a high school.
That tells you something about what this community expected from this place. And about that college operating out of the building at night — the University of Houston officially opened here in 1934 and kept right on offering those night classes until 1939. Twelve years of higher education conducted in a high school building, two different institutions sharing the same halls at different hours.
There's a whole unwritten schedule running through those walls. The building kept taking on new purposes. In 1947, Special Education students began attending classes here.
In 1960, two large technical and vocational school facilities were added to the complex. San Jacinto High School was not standing still. But 1970 was the last year the high school held classes here.
When it ended, the Houston Technical Institute moved in. Then, in 1971, Houston Community College began offering classes here. That building had now served a junior high, a senior high, a junior college, a university, a technical institute, and a community college.
Somewhere in there it had also held an alumni association that, by the mid-1990s, counted more than nine thousand members. Nine thousand people who walked those halls and never quite let go of them. That's not a building.
That's a whole education in one address.
What the marker says
South End Junior High School opened its doors in 1914 with 750 students in an impressive classical revival style structure built here in 1913. South End Junior High became a senior high school in 1923, and in 1926 its name was changed to San Jacinto High School. Houston Junior College, predecessor to the University of Huston, began offering night classes at San Jacinto High School in 1927. An east wing containing 20 classrooms, a boys' gymnasium, and lunch room was built in 1929. In 1936 an art deco style west wing containing an 1800-seat auditorium, classrooms, and a girls' gymnasium was built. The University of Houston, which officially opened here in 1934, continued to offer night classes at San Jacinto High School until 1939. Special Education students began attending classes here in 1947. In 1960 two large technical/vocational school facilities were added to the San Jacinto High School complex. San Jacinto High School held its final classes here in 1970 when the Houston Technical Institute occupied the building. Houston Community College began offering classes here in 1971. Many of San Jacinto High School's former students formed an alumni association which by the mid-1990s had a membership in excess of 9,000. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995