DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little flourish on the side. Back in 1885, the people of Jacksonville put up a two-story frame structure right here on this site, and it was something to be proud of. The first free public school in Jacksonville, standing tall, doing its job.
But Texas weather, as Texans know, does not care one bit about your civic pride. In 1890, a tornado came through and destroyed it. Just like that.
Gone. Now, most towns might have taken that as a hint. Jacksonville was not most towns.
By 1910, a three-story brick building was going up right here on the same spot, and it was finished out by 1912. They called it the East Side School, and that building served elementary students, secondary students, different folks at different times, all the way until 1939. After all those decades of purpose and noise and children running through the halls, the hillside went quiet.
Bare. Just sitting there. But the story wasn't over, not by a long shot.
In 1940, something new began on this ground. The Federal Works Progress Administration and the Jacksonville Independent School District got together and started building a sports stadium. They gave it a name that tells you exactly what part of Texas you're in: the Tomato Bowl.
A tornado took the first building. A sports stadium rose in its place. That hillside has held a lot of history, and it is not done yet.
What the marker says
In 1885 a two-story frame structure was built on this site and served as the first free public school in Jacksonville. It was destroyed by a tornado in 1890. A three-story brick building was erected here in 1910-12. Known as the East Side School, it served elementary and secondary students at different times until 1939. After decades of use for school purposes, the hillside stood bare until 1940. In that year a sports stadium, known as the Tomato Bowl, was begun by the Federal Works Progress Administration and the Jacksonville Independent School District.