North Side High School (Fort Worth, Texas)
Encyclopedia
North Side High School is a public secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 located in Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.
The school serves about 1,600 students in the Fort Worth Independent School District
Fort Worth Independent School District
Fort Worth Independent School District is a school district based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is currently the fifth largest school district in Texas ....

.

History

In 1884, the little community of Marine, located near what today is the intersection of North Main and Central Avenue, the Marine Community was the beginning of what would become North Fort Worth, Texas. This school named the North Fort Worth High School, provided a basic education in the 3 R's for the small community north of the Trinity River.

The Marine School was a one room edifice which met the needs of the tiny, but growing community. That building was located in the 1600 block of North Commerce Street.

Built in 1872, the schoolhouse was originally located in Fort Worth’s Northside on Commerce Street. Throughout the 1880s, it served as the community’s only school. After a new elementary school was built in 1889, it was used as a community church. In 1904, it once again served as a school when it housed the four students enrolled in North Fort Worth High School.

When the community finally outgrew the little building in 1906, John Mulholland bought and moved it to 1309 Commerce Street, where it was converted and used as residence throughout the early to mid 1900s. The school still retains some evidence of its use as a home.

In 1991, the City of Fort Worth condemned the weather beaten structure. But a group known as the Friends of the Marine Schoolhouse rescued it from certain destruction. On April 1993, the “Friends” moved the building to 601 Park Street, where it remained for ten years until it was donated to the City of Fort Worth. On September 16, 2003, the Marine School was moved to its present location at Log Cabin Village. The relocation was a critical move in preservation of a historic structure and a Fort Worth landmark.
As the town grew and became the city of North Fort Worth, a new school was needed.

The second structure to serve as a school to the children of the town was located at North Main and 16th Street. The site was directly across 16th Street from the Catholics Men’s Club and sat where a Park and Ride parking lot now is located. All of these early schools educated all grade levels in just one building. In 1909, the first football team of North Fort Worth High was sponsored and thus began the illustrious football history of North Fort Worth High School.

The school's colors of maroon and white were adopted in 1911. The year 1913 was an important year because of the following events that took place: the first basketball team was organized; The LASSO, the school's annual , was published; and, the North Side High School of Fort Worth Alumni Association was organized.

Facilities

The growth of the Stockyards in the first decade of the 20th century caused the building of the third structure which was the first to be called North Side High School, in 1914. It was situated on 21st Street on what is now the playground of Manuel Jara Elementary School. The name plate from the old building, which was razed when Jara was built, is displayed on 21st Street in front the playground.

The year 1919 saw the building of a new structure on what is the campus of J.P. Elder Middle School. Currently called the “Elder Annex" on Park and Lincoln, it served as North Side High School until the current building on McKinley Avenue was opened in the Fall of 1938. In 1922, the school's Alma Mater was written by Otsie Betts. By October, 1923, all North Siders were branded as steers, and the first school newspaper, THE LARIAT, was published. The following year the chapter of the National Honor Society was recognized.

North Side High
1937–Present

In September, 1937, North Side moved once again to a new building an its current location on McKinley Ave that was built on the site of the Stripling Dairy with an enrollment of 1,164. The 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) North Side High School campus was a joint project between the Fort Worth ISD, the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the United States Government. Building this school was part of a 12 school project from this governmental team. The lead architect at the North Side project was Wiley G. Clarkson and its designer was Charles O. Chromaster. Construction was completed by the Harry B. Friedman Company at a cost of $459,000 ($7.6 million in current dollars, 2000). The goal of the New Deal programs was to put as much money into circulation as possible to help stimulate the lagging economy of the Depression Era. It is because of that practice that this astronomical figure (for the time period) was advanced to produced this extremely expensive building.

In addition to his work on the nationally renowned art deco project at North Side High School, Clarkson also designed in Fort Worth, the Masonic Temple on Henderson & West Lancaster, the downtown Woolworth's
F. W. Woolworth Building (Fort Worth, Texas)
The F.W. Woolworth Building is a historic department store building located in Sundance Square neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas. The building served as a retail location for the F. W. Woolworth Company from 1926 to 1990. It now houses a JoS. A. Bank Clothiers store.Designed by Wiley G. Clarkson &...

, TCU’s Mary Couts-Burnett Library, the Trinity Episcopal Church, the Sanger Building, the Downtown YMCA, the First Methodist Church, the original Cook Children’s Hospital, Harris Methodist Hospital, the Sinclair Building, the Meacham Airport Administration Building, Stripling Department Store, John Peter Smith Hospital, McLean Jr. High School (the core of the current Paschal High School) and worked with three other architects in designing the original Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Clarkson was best known for his use of the “Modern” style of architecture in Fort Worth and its successor Art Deco. Modern Style combined classical forms (Mayan step pyramids, Greco/Roman columns and linear forms and Egyptian pyramids and motifs) along with modern construction materials (aluminum, brass, steel, terrazzo flooring and glass) coupled with the Art Deco colors of greens, reds, blacks and beige to produce a highly distinctive design. As you view this building look for the Art Deco appointments:

1) the Auditorium - Greek columns, Roman urns, Mayan step pyramids (ceiling lights), Egyptian carvings on the ceiling, use of marble in the foyer, classic colors of the designs and decoration

2) the Hallways - Greek columns in the center hall, terrazzo floors, Art Deco color schemes, leather covered doors to the auditorium, center hall lighting fixture in Mayan step pyramids and hand laid tile wainscoting in the hallways and restrooms.

3) the exterior - linear classical features of Greek and Roman architecture, the Egyptian and Mayan motif carvings above the doorways, the copper Egyptian pyramid on the top of the building and the suggested Roman columns of the building capstones along the roof line.

The Campus

The North Side High School campus consists of 6 principle structures. They are the three storied main building (completed in 1938), the field house complex and the Tech Lab/Auto Mechanics building (added in the latter 1950s), the one story “middle wing”, the Pete Campbell Activity Center/Gymnasium (opened in 1987) and the new two story building (completed in the Spring of 2002). In addition to the permanent structures there are several “temporary” portable buildings, the numbers and locations of which change from time to time based on the growth of the community and needs of the student body. Also on this campus are a football/soccer field that was part of the original 1937 construction project , a baseball field (built in 1996) and a softball diamond completed in 2001. Two original structures no longer stand in evidence on the campus. A 50' X 50' shelter house, located on the bluff overlooking the Trinity River Valley (present location of the baseball field scoreboard) was razed in 1979. The only remaining evidence of the shelter house is the concrete relief carvings of four steer heads that appear above the outside middle doorways of the “middle wing”. Though still present, just out of sight, an 800 seat amphitheater added to the beauty of the front lawn. Located just beyond the left field fence of the baseball field, the amphitheater was covered with construction debris in 1978, when the administration at the time determined that it’s broken seats were too dangerous to allow to exist in their deteriorated condition and too expensive to restore.

Future plans call for the construction of a soccer field & tennis courts to meet the growing popularity and need for those sports. The proposal calls for them to be located west of the current football field.

Notable alumni

  • Horace S. Carswell, Jr.
    Horace S. Carswell, Jr.
    Horace Seaver "Stump" Carswell, Jr. was a Medal of Honor recipient as a Major in the United States Army Air Corps who served in World War II...

    , Medal of Honor
    Medal of Honor
    The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...

     recipient
  • Darrow Hooper
    Darrow Hooper
    Clarence Darrow Hooper is an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.In 1949 he graduated from North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and went on to attend Texas A&M University. He won the NCAA shot put title in 1951. By the time he graduated from college, he had a wife and two...

    , 1952 Olympic
    1952 Summer Olympics
    The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...

     silver medalist in shot put
    Shot put
    The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....

  • Yale Lary
    Yale Lary
    Robert Yale Lary is a former American football player.After graduating from North Side High School in 1949, he attended Texas A&M University, where he was a standout in football and baseball...

    , nine-time NFL pro bowl
    Pro Bowl
    In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...

    er
  • Johnny Rutherford
    Johnny Rutherford
    For the Major League Baseball pitcher, see Johnny Rutherford . For other people with a similar name, see John RutherfordJohn Sherman Rutherford III , better known as Johnny Rutherford, and also known as "Lone Star JR" is a former U.S...

     1956, champion race car driver; three time winner of the Indy 500.
  • Bob Schieffer
    Bob Schieffer
    Bob Lloyd Schieffer is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since...

     1955, CBS News
    CBS News
    CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...

     Anchor

Football

2006 was turning point in North Side football when first year head coach Chris Killian took the steers to a 4-6 record in which the last year they went 1-9.In 2007 he returned looking for a better season than the last.This plan did not work out very well as the team went 0-10.In 2008 it was North side's 100th year of football and Killian hoped that this would put a chip on his team's shoulder for it to be "THE" year that North Side makes it to the playoffs.This however did not happen and the team went 4-6 like Killian's first year.Killian is expecting to return to North Side a 4th year which is unexpected because of former coaches leaving after at least 3 years.Killian has said his 2008 fresman squad is very good going 8-2 and hopes they will possibly take North Side to the playoffs.

Feeder patterns

The following middle schools feed into North Side
  • J.P. Elder Middle School
  • Kirkpatrick Middle School


The following elementary schools feed into North Side
  • M.G. Ellis Primary School
  • Dolores Huerta Elementary School
  • Manuel Jara Elementary School
  • M. L. Kirkpatrick Elementary School
  • Rufino Mendoza Elementary School
  • Sam Rosen Elementary School
  • W. J. Turner Elementary School
  • Washington Heights Elementary School

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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