Rockport School
Rockport, Aransas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Rockport School has served the town of Rockport for many years as both an educational and community institution. It dates to 1935, during the era of the Great Depression. One of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs to combat the Depression was the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, later the Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Workers completed construction on the Rockport School, labeled Project Number 2813, under the PWA, and local bonds helped to subsidize the government project. The district had the structure built on the site of an earlier Rockport school, a wooden structure dating to 1892. When the new school opened, it housed eleven grades before adding the twelfth a few years later for full accreditation. Rockport School served the community for many years while undergoing several changes. After World War II, a former Army Air Forces building provided space for a gymnasium and classroom addition utilized until the late 1950s. After construction of a new high school in the city in 1953, district officials converted this building into an elementary school and renamed it Rockport Elementary. In 2005, after the school closed, it became a community center. This Zigzag Moderne building features a dramatic stylized sunburst over the entryway. Other features include a running course of brickwork detailing and symmetrical, regular massing. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1935 at the depth of the Great Depression, Rockport School rose as Project No. 2813 under Franklin Roosevelt's Public Works Administration, with local bonds helping fund the federal effort. It replaced an 1892 wooden schoolhouse on the same ground and opened housing eleven grades before earning full accreditation. Its striking Zigzag Moderne design crowns the entry with a stylized sunburst.
Why it matters
The school is a tangible legacy of New Deal public works, which put Americans back to work while leaving communities with durable, architecturally distinctive civic buildings.
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Related people
- · Franklin D. Roosevelt
Themes & tags
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