Site of Early Commerce Schools

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. By 1883, Commerce, Texas had a problem that's honestly a pretty good problem to have. The town's young people had outgrown the public school that had opened ten years earlier.

Ten years, and already the walls couldn't hold them. So the Commerce Educational Association stepped up, purchased land right here at this site, and set about building something worthy of all those eager minds. What went up first was a two-story frame structure, and it became Commerce High School.

Two stories. You could see ambition in every board and beam. But here's where the story takes a turn.

In 1898, fire took it. Just like that, the first building was gone. Now, some towns might've flinched.

Commerce did not. They came back with brick. A larger brick building rose on this same ground, and it served first as Commerce High School, then later as Central Ward School.

The site had a way of reinventing itself. Then in 1937, a third building was completed right here, carrying on that tradition of starting over and building bigger. And in 1950, that third building was renamed, this time to honor a man who had given this community something lasting.

A. L. Day had served as superintendent of Commerce Schools from 1900 to 1935.

Thirty-five years of showing up for the students of this town. The building that carries his name is the marker's way of saying: some contributions are too big to let the years quietly cover over. Fire, brick, decades, and one man's name on a school.

That's Commerce, and that's this ground right here.

What the marker says

By 1883, the scholastic population of Commerce had outgrown the public school which opened ten years earlier. Land at this site, purchased by the Commerce Educational Assoc., was chosen for a new schoolhouse. The first building here, a two-story frame structure, became Commerce High School. Destroyed by fire in 1898, it was replaced by a larger brick building that served as Commerce High and later as Central Ward School. A third building, completed in 1937, was renamed in 1950 to honor A. L. Day, who served as superintendent of Commerce Schools, 1900-1935. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986