East Ward Elementary School
Borger, Hutchinson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
IN 1926, EVEN THOUGH THE CITY OF BORGER HAD NOT YET BEEN FORMALLY ORGANIZED, SOME OF THE CITIZENS PETITIONED THE HUTCHINSON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT TO INCORPORATE AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SYSTEM. BORGER I.S.D. WAS OFFICIALLY ORGANIZED ON JUL. 28, 1926, SERVING AN AREA OF 22 SQUARE MILES. WHILE PLANS WERE BEING MADE FOR FIVE BRICK SCHOOL BUILDINGS, TEMPORARY BUILDINGS WERE USED FOR THE 1926 SCHOOL YEAR WHICH NUMBERED 19 TEACHERS AND ABOUT 1,000 STUDENTS. DURING THE FIRST YEAR, NO CITY TAXES WERE AVAILABLE, SO THE CITIZENS AND BUSINESSMEN OF BORGER CONTRIBUTED TO PAY THE TEACHERS’ SALARIES. ON NOV. 15, 1926, H.H. SHELL AND SON FROM LUBBOCK WERE CHOSEN AS CONTRACTOR, AND M.C. BUTLER FROM OKLAHOMA CITY WAS CHOSEN AS ARCHITECT FOR THE CITY’S SCHOOLS. IN 1927, EAST WARD, WEST WARD, WEATHERLY, BORGER HIGH SCHOOL, AND A GYMNASIUM WERE ERECTED. EAST WARD HOUSED 200 PUPILS AND WAS A BRICK AND TILE STRUCTURE WITH FIVE CLASSROOMS, A STUDY HALL, AND AN OFFICE. OF THE ORIGINAL BUILDINGS, EAST WARD IS THE ONLY ONE STILL STANDING. AS THE POPULATION OF BORGER GREW, PARTICULARLY DURING WORLD WAR II, SO DID THE SCHOOLS. EAST WARD AND WEATHERLY BOTH SAW ADDITIONS INCLUDING CLASSROOMS, A CAFETERIA, AND AUDITORIUMS. IN 1957, EAST WARD WAS RENAMED JAMES BOWIE ELEMENTARY. IN JULY 1965, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL, A SCHOOL FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS, WAS CLOSED, AND STUDENTS WERE TRANSFERRED TO JAMES BOWIE ELEMENTARY, WHICH BECAME A FULLY INTEGRATED SCHOOL IN THE FALL OF 1965. IN 1966, THE SCHOOL WAS CONVERTED INTO A CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the oil-boom city of Borger was still unincorporated in 1926, its citizens petitioned to create an independent school district, and with no tax base yet in place local businessmen paid the teachers' salaries themselves that first year. Among the five brick buildings erected in 1927 was East Ward, a five-classroom school for 200 pupils and today the only one of that original set still standing. Renamed James Bowie Elementary in 1957, it absorbed the students of the segregated Booker T. Washington School when it closed in 1965 and became fully integrated that fall, before serving as the district's administrative center.
Why it matters
East Ward's arc—from a boomtown built on private generosity to the integration of Borger's schools in 1965—traces both the frontier improvisation of the oil era and the arrival of the civil rights movement in the Texas Panhandle.
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Related events
- · Desegregation of Borger schools
Themes & tags
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