DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Thomas Jefferson High School in Bexar County. Now settle in, because this story starts — as the best ones do — with a problem. Two high schools, one booming city, and not nearly enough room.
San Antonio in the fall of 1930 decided something had to be done about the crowded conditions pressing down on its two existing high schools. So they set out to build a third. Simple enough, right?
Well. The public had opinions about the expense involved — loud opinions — and they made those opinions known. Didn't matter.
The project pressed on anyway, and by January 1932, it was done. Now here is where the story gets interesting, because what came out of that controversy wasn't just another school building. It was something else entirely.
The San Antonio architectural firm of Adams and Adams designed a place built around two large patios, anchored by a tower and a sub-tower, crowned with a Red Spanish tile roof, dressed up with wrought iron balconies, and graced with an elaborate Baroque entry. On the four sides of that tower dome, the school's coat of arms was cast right into the stone. Not painted.
Cast in stone. And when students walked through the doors, they were walking on tile floors — the first San Antonio high school to have them. It was also the first to have its own gymnasium.
Now, one more thing worth noting: the students themselves chose the name. Thomas Jefferson High School. It opened its doors on February 1st, 1932, with an initial enrollment of fourteen hundred students.
Fourteen hundred on opening day. That's not a trickle — that's a flood of young people pouring into something brand new. Over the years, that school and its student body drew national and international recognition — newspapers, magazines, films.
And the alumni it sent out into the world went into government, the military, communications, education, athletics, medicine, law, business, and the fine arts. A building born out of protest and crowded hallways, shaped by one firm's vision, named by the students who claimed it as their own. Thomas Jefferson High School didn't just ease the crowding.
It made its mark.
What the marker says
Fall of 1930 to help ease the crowded conditions in San Antonio's two existing High Schools. Despite public protest at the expense involved, the project was completed in January 1932. Designed by the San Antonio architectural firm of Adams and Adams, Thomas Jefferson High School is built around two large patios with a tower and sub-tower. It features an elaborate Baroque entry, a Red Spanish tile roof, wrought iron balconies, and the school's coat of arms cast in stone on the four sides of the tower dome. It was the first San Antonio High School to have tile floors and the first to have its own Gymnasium. Thomas Jefferson High School, whose name was chosen by the students, opened its doors on Feb. 1, 1932, and had an initial enrollment of 1400. Over the years, both the school building and the student body have received national and international recognition in newspapers, magazines, and films. The school has produced numerous outstanding Alumni in the fields of Government, the military, communications, education, athletics, the medical and legal professions, business, and fine arts.