Robert E. Lee High School
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After a population increase due to the discovery of oil in 1908, local residents realized the need for permanent school facilities and formed the Goose Creek Independent School District in 1919, encompassing the cities of Goose Creek, Pelly, and Baytown and the Wooster community. Prominent Houston architect Harry D. Payne designed a new school, which opened in fall 1928. The Art Deco-style building with Classical elements is concrete-framed with a stucco veneer on a concrete foundation. Notable features include glazed terra cotta roof tiles, brick trimmed niches with urns, and Classical finials. Robert E. Lee High School, named due to the Confederate general's popularity in the area, served as a senior high school for the entire district. Sited between Goose Creek-Baytown Highway (now Market Street) and the Dayton-Goose Creek Railroad (now Union Pacific), the school was centrally located in the tri-cities, allowing it to unite them and become the heart of the area. As a state purpose of the school was to become the center of all community activities, various organizations and churches were allowed to use its facilities, and the auditorium became a popular venue for civic events. Another purpose was adult education; from 1934 to 1951, Lee Junior College held classes at night on the high school campus. Disaster struck on April 29, 1987, when a fire, later determined to be arson, engulfed the main building. Alumni and citizens insisted on restoration of the building to its original appearance. From the beginning, Robert E. Lee High School students have won numerous honors in both academics and athletics. Over the years, the school has expanded and modernized to consistently meet the highest standards and remain a first-class high school. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When oil transformed the Goose Creek field after 1908, the booming tri-cities of Goose Creek, Pelly, and Baytown needed a school to match, and in 1928 architect Harry D. Payne delivered a striking Art Deco building. Named Robert E. Lee High School in an era when the Confederate general's memory was widely honored locally, it became the civic heart of the district, hosting churches, clubs, and even a junior college's night classes. It survived an arson fire in 1987, restored by alumni to its original appearance.
Why it matters
The school captures how the Texas oil boom built instant communities and the public institutions that knit them together in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · Harry D. Payne
Themes & tags
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