San Felipe High School
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1929, San Felipe Independent School District (I.S.D.) formed; one of the district’s first decisions was to establish a high school. Residents voted unanimously for a bond for the institution. Building was completed at the corner of Plaza and Garza Streets and the new high school opened in December 1930. The new campus hosted a full range of grades, with secondary students attending school in the main building and grades six through eight housed in a posterior structure. The high school offered traditional subjects, competitive sports and a wide range of fine arts. The colors for the mighty Mustangs of San Felipe High School were purple and gold. In 1932, the school held its first commencement exercises for a graduating class of seven students. San Felipe High School was known for its caring teachers, who along with administrators helped to create a close-knit community. The school also had high parental involvement. This encouraging atmosphere shaped students, aiding them in achieving later career and life success. Additionally, the school served as a focal point for the community. It held adult education classes and citizenship classes, functioned as a voting place, and has housed families displaced by floods. In 1971, San Felipe High School closed when San Felipe I.S.D. consolidated with Del Rio I.S.D. Memory of the institution has been kept alive by the generations of students who attended and by the school’s alumni association, a rarity for a school that no longer exists. Today, San Felipe High School is remembered for being a cornerstone in the San Felipe community for over 40 years. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1929 the residents of San Felipe, a Mexican-American community near Del Rio, voted unanimously to bond themselves for a high school, and by December 1930 the Mustangs had a home at Plaza and Garza Streets. For four decades the purple-and-gold school was far more than a classroom: it hosted graduations and adult citizenship classes, served as a polling place, and even sheltered families driven out by floods. When it closed in 1971 upon consolidation with Del Rio, its alumni kept an association alive—a rare tribute to a school that no longer exists.
Why it matters
San Felipe High captures how a Mexican-American community built and cherished its own institution, making a schoolhouse the beating heart of civic and cultural life along the border.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Felipe Independent School District
Del Rio, TX
On Del Rio's east side, the historically Hispanic community along San Felipe Creek made education a priority, raising a schoolhouse by 1883. When Del Rio schools annexed the community in 1928 to capture its tax revenue, residents fought back—winning in court and then organizing their own San Felipe Independent School District in 1929. The district served the community until 1971, when a federal court ordered consolidation with Del Rio for integration.
Langston School
Del Rio, TX
San Felipe ISD opened this two-room schoolhouse for African American students in the 1930s and ran it again from 1945 to 1956, naming it for Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes. A single teacher taught as many as thirty children across grades one through eight, while those seeking high school had to travel to Del Rio or as far as San Antonio or Houston. As the district integrated, Langston School closed in 1957.
Santos S. Garza
Del Rio, TX
Known as 'Don Santos' and the 'Father of San Felipe Schools,' Santos S. Garza came to Del Rio in 1898 and built a string of businesses—a theater, general store, dairy, pharmacy, ranch, and bar. His lasting legacy was civic: in 1928 he blocked the annexation of the San Felipe area by the Del Rio school district, keeping his largely Mexican-American community in control of its own schools, and he led the movement that created the San Felipe I.S.D. in 1929.
Elks Lodge Hall
Del Rio, TX
In 1916 the local chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks raised this meeting hall to plans by builder Martin Brauer, replacing an earlier structure on the site. Its Prairie Style influence shows in the low hipped roof, overhanging eaves with exposed rafters, paired French doors, and a balcony on brick piers. For decades the hall hosted lodge meetings, dances, and community gatherings until the Elks built a new home in the 1980s.