DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at this site has to say — and it's a story worth the stop. Now, picture Corpus Christi in 1896. The Corpus Christi Independent School District had an idea — an experimental idea, they called it — to hire a young woman named Miss Rose Dunne to teach English and academics to the city's Mexican American students.
One year. That was the plan. An experiment.
Well. Miss Dunne and her pupils were so successful that by 1901 the school district went ahead and purchased property right here on this site — bought it from a pioneer citizen by the name of S. W.
Rankin. And they didn't just throw up any old building. They brought in Alfred Giles of San Antonio to draw up the plans for a brand new two-story wooden structure.
That tells you something about how seriously they were taking this now. Miss Dunne had married E. J.
Shaw in 1900 and temporarily stepped away from teaching in 1902. That same year — 1902 — a young woman named Julia Pena became the first Mexican American student to graduate from the program. First.
Think about what that moment meant. By 1913, two hundred and fifty students were enrolled in a school that was, by any measure, thriving. Then in 1917, the parent-teacher organization and Mrs.
Shaw herself walked up to the school board with a request: name this building for former school board member Cheston L. Heath — a man who had shown particular generosity to Mexican American students. Heath died in 1918, but his name was already on the door.
Rose Shaw — once Miss Rose Dunne, the experimental teacher — became principal of the Heath School in 1926. The following year, 1927, a new building went up to hold the growing number of students coming through those doors. And grow they did.
During the 1930s, enrollment ran so high that there were four hundred students in the fourth grade alone. The fourth grade alone. Those were hard years, the Depression years, and Mrs.
Shaw knew it. She operated a soup kitchen for her pupils right there at the school, feeding children through the difficult economic times bearing down on everyone. Then came the post-World War II baby boom, and enrollment skyrocketed throughout the city and across the district.
The Cheston L. Heath School kept on serving most of the area's Mexican American students all the way until 1968 — when it was closed and the students were integrated into the other district schools. In the years that followed, the building housed adult education classes and television studios.
The school district sold the land in 1973, and this ground — the same ground where Rose Dunne once stood in front of a classroom full of children in a year-long experiment nobody was sure would last — became the site of the Nueces County Courthouse. From experiment, to school, to courthouse. The land remembers what the building couldn't hold forever.
What the marker says
The Corpus Christi Independent School District hired Miss Rose Dunne to teach English and academics to the city's Mexican American students in a year-long experimental program in 1896. Miss Dunne and her pupils were so successful that in 1901 the school district purchased property on this site from pioneer citizen S. W. Rankin. Plans for the new two-story wooden building were drawn up by Alfred Giles of San Antonio. Miss Dunne married E. J. Shaw in 1900 and temporarily retired from teaching in 1902, the same year that Julia Pena became the first Mexican American student to graduate from the program. By 1913, 250 students were enrolled in the thriving school. In 1917 the parent-teacher organization of the Mexican American school and Mrs. Shaw requested that the school board name the building for former school board member Cheston L. Heath (d. 1918) in recognition of his generosity to Mexican American students. Rose Shaw became principal of the Heath School in 1926. A new building was erected in 1927 to house the growing number of students. During the 1930s enrollment was so hight that there were 400 students in the fourth grade alone. Mrs. Shaw operated a soup kitchen for her pupils during the difficult economic times of the Great Depression. School enrollment skyrocketed throughout the city during the post-World War II baby boom, causing expansion in the district. The Cheston L. Heath School continued to be used by most of the area's Mexican American students until it was closed in 1968 and the students were integrated into the other district schools. In the next few years the building housed adult education classes and television studios. The school district sold the land in 1973 and it became the site of the Nueces County Courthouse. (2000)