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.
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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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