Baytown Mexican School
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1923 by the Goose Creek Independent School District, Baytown Mexican School was the first educational facility for Mexican American children in the community. The very modest beginning of the school in 1923 had a profound effect on the city of Baytown as a whole. Students of the 1920s later confirmed that school was held in the Mexican community recreation hall owned by Humble Oil and Refining Company. Instead of having professional teachers, the school was staffed by female students from Robert E. Lee high school, and the school mission was to receive young Spanish-speaking children and transition them to English. In 1927, land was purchased for the construction of a senior high school building and Mexican grade school building. The three-room building at 3010 Magnolia Street opened for classes in 1928. The first teachers in 1928 were Miss Jessie L. Pumphrey (principal), Miss Bertie Walker and Miss Celeste Dashiel. The teachers developed a very short list of English words in the 1930s. A new elementary school was built in 1992 at 305 tri-city beach road. From 1970-1972, the Mexican school building was used as a head start program building after the school closed in 1969. The cornerstone for the Baytown Mexican School is now on display at the Baytown historical museum. The original building was demolished in 1995. In 1938, the name of the school was changed to de Zavala for Lorenzo de Zavala, interim vice president of Texas (1836). One of the school’s teachers, Elizabeth Burrus, appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1961 for expanding the short list of English words into a 400-word book. In 1937, Antonio Banuelos started La Tipica all-girls orchestra, a legend in the local Hispanic culture.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Opened in 1923 by the Goose Creek school district, the Baytown Mexican School was the community's first place of learning for Mexican American children, first meeting in a company recreation hall and staffed by teenaged girls from the local high school. Its stated purpose was to move Spanish-speaking children into English, and teachers famously built lessons around a short word list that one instructor, Elizabeth Burrus, later expanded into a 400-word book featured in the Saturday Evening Post. Renamed for Lorenzo de Zavala in 1938, the school nurtured cultural touchstones like Antonio Banuelos's La Tipica all-girls orchestra before closing in 1969.
Why it matters
The school is a tangible record of the segregated "Mexican school" system that shaped opportunity for Mexican American children across Texas, and of the community that made it a source of pride despite that inequity.
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Related people
- · Lorenzo de Zavala
- · Elizabeth Burrus
- · Antonio Banuelos
Themes & tags
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