In the Beginning...
The First Freeport Schools
From BISD's Insight Newsletter May 2003

One Halloween night, in a long ago October, a group of Freeport boys located a large wagon, disassembled it, hauled the sections up to the third floor of their high school, and put it back together on the stage of the auditorium. The next morning, less creative maintenance workers attempted to roll it in its entirety down the wide stairs, doing irreparable damage to the wagon, and considerable harm to the stairs and walls.

That building (see photo) was a handsome structure on Ash Street at the river levee that had been built in 1916 by Oscar Holcomb, who went on to be the mayor of Houston in sporadic terms that covered the next half a century. The Freeport Sulfur Company’s arrival in 1912 had created the necessity of both a town and a school district. First came the community of Freeport. Then the school district was born, in the form of a hodgepodge of classes which met in several small buildings, even in private homes on occasion. Then the board voted to purchase, or lease (historical records don’t help us much here), a large building in the 200 block of West Broad Street (see photo). It had been a business, and after its tenure as a school would become a meeting hall for the Freeport chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows.

The building that Oscar Holcomb built, and that band of Halloween revelers would many years later utilize, was at first an all level school, housing classes from the first grade through the eleventh, which was the graduating class in those days. Mrs. Gladys Anderson, who still lives in Freeport, taught there in the early 1940s, in a program that was called The Little School, La Esquilita, a curriculum for Spanish speaking students that was the brainchild of Dr. Gladys Polk, her principal.
The prominent image of the building that was lodged in more than a few former students’ memories was the steep fire escape chute which was attached to the back. It offered daring children a ride unequaled at any amusement park, and propelled them with sufficient momentum to launch them far out into the schoolyard. If they landed wrong, they had a problem. And if they were caught anywhere near the apparatus, by a teacher, they had a bigger one.

The building was used as a school until the late 1940’s, then as a book depository and warehouse. The district eventually sold it to a private business. It is still standing, and is currently used as a warehouse.

Photos above: The Freeport High School Building was located at 102 Ash Street on the River Levee in Freeport, Texas. This picture was taken in the 1920’s.
Oval Insert: This school house was in the 200 block of West Broad Street in Freeport, Texas. It was first used in 1915. It was  later the International order of ODD Fellows Hall. It was destroyed in the 1932 hurricane.

Compiled by Ann Brown, Frances Snelgrove, and Lon Tullos
Photos courtesy of Dan Kessner

The First Velasco Schools
From BISD's Insight Newsletter Jan 2003

According to an article in a 1912 edition of the Angleton Times, the first school district in New Velasco (currently Freeport) was established in 1891. It was a “common” district, depending entirely on the state for its funds, but the community’s interest in education was so great that “before a great while” a local tax was imposed, and an independent school district was established in 1895. A “good brick building” was constructed (see inset) on the corner of Gulf Boulevard and South Third Street and classes commenced. The building and almost all the school records were destroyed in the great Galveston hurricane of September 1900, then the district itself was reorganized and plans for a new building were drawn up. During its construction, school was “carried on in an old store building where good work was done despite the fact that there were few accommodations.”

The new schoolhouse (larger photo) was built on Avenue B a few blocks away from the site of the old one and opened its tall, wide doors to its first students in 1902. It was a handsome two story, wood frame building containing eight classrooms and a wide stairwell in its center. Students stood on its covered front porch to watch the celebrations marking the ends of two world wars and to strain to see smoke drifting by on the far horizon after the Texas City explosion in 1946. One teacher who taught in both the old building and its replacement was Mrs. R. A. McKee, whose daughter married Texas historian J. Frank Dobie. Another teacher, Miss Lennette Phinney, went to the first through the sixth grades in the building that was built in 1902, then she returned to teach there after college. Miss Phinney retired from BISD in 1982 and still lives in Freeport. That building was used continuously as a school for almost half a century, until it was condemned in the late 1940’s and sold for scrap lumber, some of which was used to build houses in the new city of Lake Jackson.

Gathered by Ann Brown, Frances Snelgrove, and Lon Tullos

And there's more to come in the future....so be sure to check back!