Alpine Schools, Alpine, Texas. (original) (raw)

Alpine High School circa 1910
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Subject: Alpine School

• It was nice to see the old Grade School in Alpine. It broke my heart when they demolished the School. I grew up living with my Aunt Miss Eula Jean Moore (Aunt Jean to every kid in Alpine). We lived on North 6th Street just across the School Parking Lot and next door to Johnnie Newel that owned Newel Oil Co. Justice of the Peace Hally Stillwell lived across the street. Me and my Brother and Sister would play at the Old School on the fire escape. There was a chain link bearer around it, but we knew how to get past it. I went to school at the New Grade School from 1st to 5th Grades. Mrs. Hill was my first grade teacher. I enjoyed her class. It was fun.
  The bar ditch that separates the New School and the parking area has two bridges. These started out as two old doors and 2x4 put there by James & Randel Fitzgerald, Bobby Lane Hoffman, Mark, David & Emily Woodward and myself. We put them there in the summer of '67 or '68 so as to have a short cut. The next year just before school started they took out our bridiges and replaced them with concrete. As far as I know the new bridiges are still there.
  The Gymnasium was to the East of the Old School with the play ground to the South. The gym had a light that hung down in front of the door. I had a new B-B gun. Sammy Fitsgerald and Jimmy Hill bet me I could not shootout the light. Not being one to turn down a challange and a good shot to this day, I shot out the light at a good distance for a B-B gun. I won and lost in the blink of an eye. Because as the light broke Jack Johnson Chief of Police drove by. His wife was a good freind of my Aunt so he knew where to find me. I lost my B-B gun for a while. I could fill a book with stories of that time and place. - Yours Truly, Jess Ray, October 12, 2002
• The 'very first' school buildng in Alpine was a two-story wooden structure that was used for a few years until the first permanent structure could be built. It was overcrowded from the start.
  The first true school house in Alpine was built in 1891 and this building is still located across the street north of the Methodist Church. This building later served as the offices for the U. S. Border Patrol, and most recently for the last dozen or two years houses as the Sunshine House.
  The picture shown was first called the High School and opened in 1910. It was completed to replace the small building first mentioned. In 1929 a new high school was built and this building then became Central School. I attended this school for my first years of schooling (1939 - 47), with Junior High (5th - 7th grade) being upstairs. Some time in the late 1960's to early 1970's the Central building was completely demolished and a new Grade School was built. Also, in the late 1970's a new High School was built north of town and just west of Kokernot Field.
  The above information was taken from "Alpine, Texas, then and now", by Dr. Clifford B. Casey, published in 1981. Plus my own personal knowledge of the history of Alpine. - Tommy R. Woodward
  Anyone wishing to share information, memories or photos of Alpine, Texas, please email history@texasescapes.com