John A. Kooken Elementary School
Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Arlington's North Side School opened in 1907 at the corner of Sanford and Center streets. Grades one through seven attended the new school. The building was destroyed by fire in 1909, and students met temporarily in a building on the property and in a cottage before the school was rebuilt. In 1938, school officials sought Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding in building a new school, which opened in 1939. The old building was torn down and material salvaged for other structures. Housing grades one through eight, the school was renamed in honor of educator John A. Kooken (December 17, 1863 - May 14, 1943), who came to Arlington from Ferris (Ellis Co.) in 1908 and became the high school principal. He was elected superintendent of public schools in 1913 and served in that capacity until 1937. Kooken was known for his understanding and patience with students. In 1941, he published a memoir about his years as an educator. In the early 1950s, additional wings were added to the facility. In 1976, the school closed and was used as a diagnostic and materials center before reopening in 1988 as the only preschool campus in the district. Known today as Kooken Education Center, the facility has been honored for work in integrating preschoolers with disabilities with the general student population. Today, over 100 years after North Side School was established, the institution's legacy lies in the generations of students who learned at the school and in being renamed after one of the most important educators in Arlington's history. (2010)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Arlington's North Side School opened in 1907 to serve grades one through seven, only to burn in 1909 and be rebuilt with help from Depression-era WPA funding in 1939. It was renamed for John A. Kooken, a beloved principal and long-serving superintendent who shaped Arlington's public schools from 1908 into the late 1930s. Later a preschool and then an education center, the campus became known for integrating young children with disabilities into general classrooms.
Why it matters
The school traces more than a century of American public education—from a small-town schoolhouse through New Deal construction to modern inclusive teaching.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Arlington's North Side School opened in 1907 at the corner of Sanford and Center streets, the United States was in the midst of the Progressive Era, a time of deep faith in public institutions — and in public schools above all. Communities across the country were building schoolhouses as declarations of ambition, convinced that education was the surest path to a better, more orderly, more prosperous future.
Arlington in these years was a growing North Texas town, and a school for grades one through seven was a mark of civic seriousness. But early public education was also fragile. When the building burned in 1909 — just two years after it opened — students carried on in a nearby building and a cottage until the school could be rebuilt, a testament to how much a community would improvise to keep its classrooms running.
The school's next great chapter came in the grip of the Great Depression. In 1938, officials sought funding from the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal agency that put Americans to work building the nation's public infrastructure. A new school opened in 1939, and the old building was torn down, its materials salvaged for other uses in the thrifty spirit of the era.
People & events
At the center of this story is John A. Kooken, who lived from 1863 to 1943 and gave the school its enduring name. He came to Arlington in 1908 from Ferris, in Ellis County, and became the high school principal. In 1913 he was elected superintendent of public schools, a post he held until 1937 — nearly a quarter century guiding the town's education through some of the most transformative decades in American life.
Kooken was remembered not for grand pronouncements but for something quieter and rarer: understanding and patience with students. In 1941, near the end of his life, he published a memoir about his years as an educator, leaving behind a first-hand account of a career spent in classrooms and school offices. When the rebuilt school took his name, it honored a man whose influence was measured in the students he shaped.
The building's life did not end with him. Additional wings were added in the early 1950s. The school closed in 1976, served for a time as a diagnostic and materials center, then reopened in 1988 as the district's only preschool campus. Under its later name, the Kooken Education Center, it earned recognition for integrating preschoolers with disabilities alongside their peers — a fitting evolution for a place named after a teacher known for his patience.
Its place in the American story
Few single sites trace the arc of American public education as completely as this one. From a small-town schoolhouse in 1907, through a fire and a determined rebuilding, to New Deal construction in 1939 and, finally, to modern inclusive early-childhood teaching, the campus is a living timeline of how the country has schooled its children for more than a century.
The 1939 building is a piece of the New Deal's vast civic legacy. Across the nation, WPA labor raised schools, post offices, and courthouses that communities still use today — public works that outlasted the crisis that created them and reshaped the American landscape. This school's Depression-era rebirth ties Arlington directly to that national story.
Its final chapter matters just as much. The move toward integrating young children with disabilities into general classrooms reflects one of the most important shifts in modern American education: the belief that schools should include, not separate. That a century-old institution became a leader in that work shows how public schools can keep reinventing their purpose while holding onto their founding faith in every child.
If you visit
Look at this place as a set of layers rather than a single building. More than a century of American schooling is folded into one campus, and the marker is your key to reading it — the 1907 origin, the 1909 fire, the 1939 New Deal rebuilding, and the modern education center it became.
As you take it in, think about the generations who passed through: children in grades one through seven in the earliest days, and the preschoolers of recent decades learning side by side regardless of ability. The name over the door belongs to a superintendent remembered for patience — a good frame of mind to bring to your visit.
For a road trip through the Dallas–Fort Worth area, this is a rewarding detour from the usual attractions, a chance to see how a community's commitment to its schools endured through fire, depression, and changing times. Pair it with a walk through Arlington's older neighborhoods to feel the town that built and rebuilt this place.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John A. Kooken
Themes & tags
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