Radford School
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Plans for the establishment of a quality boarding and day school for girls in El Paso were begun in 1910 as a result of a meeting of leading citizens. Through their efforts, a joint stock company was formed and classroom space was leased in houses on Terrace Street. The El Paso School for Girls opened on Sept. 10, 1910, with 18 students. Ora W. L. Slater and Olga E. Tafel served as associate principals. With increased enrollment, plans were soon begun for the construction of new facilities at this site. The land was provided by Paul Harvey and Paul D. Thomas, owners of the Terrace Street property. The first building, completed in 1917, was a three-story residence hall with one-story classroom additions. In 1927 Dr. Lucinda de Leftwich Templin of Missouri became principal. Faced with the school's large debt, she persuaded her friends George A. and Julia Brown Radford of Webster Groves, Missouri, to pay off the mortgage and incorporate the institution. Renamed for the Radfords, the school experienced new growth. Now a leading college preparatory school, it has produced many prominent women leaders, including Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice of the United States Supreme Court. (1981)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
What began in 1910 as the El Paso School for Girls — 18 students in leased houses on Terrace Street — grew into one of the region's leading college-preparatory schools. When crushing debt threatened it in 1927, principal Lucinda de Leftwich Templin persuaded her friends George and Julia Radford of Missouri to pay off the mortgage, and the grateful institution took their name. Among its many graduates was Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
Why it matters
The school stands as a monument to women's education in the American Southwest and to the generations of women leaders — O'Connor foremost among them — that such institutions made possible.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
El Paso in 1910 was a booming border city. The railroads had reached it about three decades earlier, turning a remote crossing on the Rio Grande into a hub of trade, mining and ranching. Its population was growing fast, and its leading families wanted the civic institutions of an established American city: churches, libraries, and good schools.
That same year, across the river, the Mexican Revolution broke out. It would shape life in El Paso for the next decade. The city became a refuge, a staging ground and a front-row seat to upheaval. The school for girls opened into that uncertain world.
Nationally, these were the years of the Progressive Era, and women's education was expanding quickly. More and more families believed their daughters deserved serious, rigorous schooling, and private academies for girls were founded across the country. In El Paso, some of the city's leading citizens set out to bring that ideal to the far western edge of Texas.
People & events
The school began with a meeting of civic-minded El Pasoans in 1910. They formed a joint stock company, leased classroom space in houses on Terrace Street, and opened the El Paso School for Girls in September with 18 students. Two associate principals, Ora W. L. Slater and Olga E. Tafel, guided those first classes.
Enrollment grew, and the school needed a real home. The owners of the Terrace Street property, Paul Harvey and Paul D. Thomas, provided land at this site. In 1917 a three-story residence hall went up, with one-story classroom wings attached. But growth came with debt, and by the late 1920s the debt was heavy enough to threaten the whole enterprise.
In 1927 Dr. Lucinda de Leftwich Templin arrived from Missouri to become principal. She faced the school's large debt head on and turned to her friends George A. and Julia Brown Radford of Webster Groves, Missouri. They agreed to pay off the mortgage and incorporate the institution. The school took their name in gratitude and grew once more. Among the students who later passed through its doors was a girl from a remote ranch who would make history: Sandra Day O'Connor.
Its place in the American story
The marker was dedicated in 1981, the same year Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. That timing gives the marker a special weight. It ties one of the great firsts in American history to a modest school founded by local citizens for 18 girls.
O'Connor's path to the Court ran through the ranch country of the Southwest. Her family sent her to live in El Paso so she could get a better education than the remote ranch could offer, and Radford was part of that education. It is a reminder that the doors which open at the highest levels of national life are often first opened in local classrooms.
The story is also a national one about women's education. Schools like Radford, founded when women in most of the country could not yet vote, prepared generations of women for colleges, professions and public life. The marker notes that the school produced many prominent women leaders. O'Connor is the best known, but she stands for many others.
If you visit
The marker stands in El Paso's older residential neighborhoods, near the Terrace Street area where the school began in leased houses. Take a moment to picture the scene in 1910: a few rented homes, 18 students, and a group of citizens betting that a border city deserved a first-class school for its daughters.
This is a place for reflection more than sightseeing. If the grounds are in use as a school, treat them as you would any campus, and enjoy the marker and the setting from public areas without wandering onto private property.
El Paso rewards a longer stay. Its mountain views, its old missions and its place right on the border with Mexico make it one of the most distinctive cities in the Southwest. Pair this stop with other historic sites in the city for a day about how the borderland shaped American life, including the life of a future Supreme Court justice.
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
- · Sandra Day O'Connor
- · Lucinda de Leftwich Templin
- · George A. Radford
- · Julia Brown Radford
- · Ora W. L. Slater
- · Olga E. Tafel
Themes & tags
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