Site of Early Bay City School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1901, this particular patch of Matagorda County ground wasn't anything you'd point to and call a legacy. It was trees, a strawberry field, sitting peacefully outside the city limits of Bay City.

Pastoral, the marker calls it, and you can almost picture it, quiet and unhurried, with no idea what was coming. That year, the Bay City Independent School District looked at this block and saw something worth three hundred dollars. So they bought most of it.

And up went a two-story, eight-room frame school, right here on ground that had just been growing strawberries. Classes moved over from a two-room schoolhouse at Avenue D and Eighth Street, a little building that had been doing the work since 1895. Two rooms.

That's the whole operation. You start to appreciate the upgrade. Now, among the teachers who made that move was a woman named Miss Tenie Holmes, born in 1874, and she is the kind of person a marker loves to find.

She had started her career back in 1896 at a private school right there in Bay City. By 1898 she was teaching public classes over at Avenue D, and then she came with the school when it moved to this site in 1901. She stayed through 1905 on this spot, kept teaching Bay City schools all the way until 1936, and then, when most folks would have called it a life well spent and sat down, she turned around and conducted a private school until her death in 1952.

That same year, 1952, an elementary school was named for her. The marker doesn't editorialize much, but that fact speaks for itself. Now the story of this land doesn't stop with Miss Holmes.

In 1930, additional lots and a second block were acquired right here, and Bay City High School was built on this site. The architect was Harry D. Payne, and he did not phone it in.

One story, Spanish colonial revival details, brick, cast stone, tile roofing. The kind of building that makes you slow down when you drive past it. The campus kept growing, and in 1937 a third block was purchased.

Then 1949 came around, and the 1930 building became a junior high school. Then 1962 rolled in, and it became John H. Cherry Elementary School.

And then, the year this very marker was placed, 1986, the structure was demolished. A strawberry field, then a frame schoolhouse, then a high school with Spanish colonial tile catching the Texas sun, then a junior high, then an elementary school, then gone. Some ground just keeps working until there's nothing left to give.

What the marker says

In 1901 this land was a pastoral scene of trees and a strawberry field outside the city limits. That year the Bay City Independent School District purchased most of this block for $300. A two-story, eight-room frame school was erected here, and classes were transferred from a two-room schoolhouse at Avenue D and Eight Street, which had been used since 1895. One of the teachers, Miss Tenie Holmes (1874-1952), began her career in 1896 at a private school in Bay City. From 1898 she taught public classes at Avenue D, then moved to the first school on this site, which served from 1901 to 1905. She retired from Bay City schools in 1936, then conducted a private school until her death. An elementary school was named for her in 1952. Additional lots and a second block were acquired here in 1930, and "Bay City High School" was built on this site. The one-story structure was designed by architect Harry D. Payne, and exhibited Spanish colonial revival details in brick, cast stone, and tile roofing. The campus expanded in 1937 with the purchase of a third block. The 1930 building was converted to a junior high school in 1949, and in 1962 it became "John H. Cherry Elementary School". The structure was demolished in 1986. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986