Wynn Seale Junior High School
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This property was outside the city limits in 1934 when acquired by the Corpus Christi Independent School District for a new junior high. The school board voted to name the planned facility for Edmund Wynn Seale (c. 1887-1934) shortly after his death. Seale, president of Texas College of Arts and Industries in Kingsville, had served several south Texas school systems and had been principal of Corpus Christi High School. Partial federal funding for the new school, the city's first to be built as a junior high, was secured from the Public Works Administration. Construction began in 1935 on a design by the firm of Hamon and Griffith, with Harry D. Payne consulting. Local architect Everett Elijah Hamon (1885-1956) designed some 50 area schools. Wynn Seale was his largest effort, costing $387,624 when opened in 1936 with capacity for some 1,500 students. The brick-clad building's spanish colonial revival styling is highlighted with corbelled brick, cast stone, and tile details. The interior reflects this baroque theme, with an 800-seat auditorium featuring gilded and painted plaster reliefs, wrought iron balustrades, bronze and etched glass light fixtures, and stenciled designs. Numerous additions and improvements to the building have maintained its importance to local education.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built on land outside the city limits in the depths of the Depression, this was Corpus Christi's first purpose-built junior high, made possible partly by New Deal funding from the Public Works Administration. Opened in 1936, it was named for educator Edmund Wynn Seale and designed by prolific local architect Everett Hamon in an ornate Spanish Colonial Revival style. Its 800-seat auditorium dazzled with gilded plaster reliefs, wrought iron, and etched glass — a public school built like a civic monument.
Why it matters
It stands as a showpiece of New Deal school building, when federal relief dollars and ambitious local architecture combined to give a growing Texas city a grand public school.
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Related people
- · Edmund Wynn Seale
- · Everett Elijah Hamon
Themes & tags
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