Old King High School before restoration started. What’s happening in our town? At the west end of Kleberg Avenue dust and debris are floating out of old King High. Trucks are backed up to the front entrances and men in hard hats are loading rubble to be hauled away.

After the last graduating class left the school in 1964, it was used spasmodically for various educational endeavors until 1978. Then it settled down to watch the world go by. As the years slipped away, this dear old landmark showed signs of aging. She shed her beautiful red roof tiles. Paneless windows stared down at the vacant yard where children once gathered. Bricks dropped from loosened mortar.

After many years of citizens trying to decide what could be done about the empty, decaying building that holds so many memories of the town’s population, finally a revival of the structure is beginning. A foundation spearheaded by Mrs. Helen Kleberg Groves, great granddaughter of Henrietta M. King, the original donor of the edifice, is working to restore it to its former glory for the city Mrs. King planned so carefully. Mrs. Groves contributed one million dollars to start the project. Other community leaders — Joe Henkel, Kleberg Bank president and chief executive officer, Mayor Sam Fugate, and Jane Haun Macon (member of the 1964 graduating class) — are undertaking the preparations for its future use. An architect, David Brown of Corpus Christi, has been secured. The building has been determined structurally sound. At this time, clean up of the interior is in progress. The end result after all the refurbishing will be a proud building that harbors so many stories of past students who walked those halls.

Pictured are the public school students in Kingsville from the winter of 1905-06. Front row, from left to right, Emmile Jesse, Lillian Conrad, Gladnes Knight, Willie Custer, Gracie Harvey, Irme Roberson, Orveda Taylor, Sarah Sedwick and unidentified; Middle row, left to right, Hilda Jesse, Ethel Sedwick, Sadie Hatfield, Mabel Keene, Brulah Brister, Marjorie De Lew, Mae Sedwick, Lillie Harvey, and Stella Lippard; Back row left to right, Ernest Wier, Roy Bristes, Earl Harvey, Ralph Keeme, Robert Custer, Raymond Robereon, Leonard White, George Bristes, W.B. Biggo (teacher), Gude Wier, Claud Williams, Judson Cornelius , Offie Williams, and Lee Sedwick. Now that you know what is happening, let’s go back in time to see how it began.

One hundred years ago in 1910, the children of Kingsville were beginning their first year in the grand school built and presented to the community by Mrs. Henrietta M. King. It was a magnificent structure, its façade reflecting the history of Texas in the design of three San Antonio missions: the Alamo in the center, the San Jose tower with its stylized Rose Window on the north side, and Concepcion with its three Romanesque arches on the south. It was an awesome edifice for the kids whose parents had brought them to this strange land at the start of the century when the town was mostly a tent encampment amid cactus and rattlesnakes.

Families came to this new frontier for various reasons: to farm, to ranch, to sell merchandise, but especially to work for the new railway that had made Kingsville its center with the general business office and the shops for repair and upkeep of the rolling stock.

After the settlers arrived and managed to acquire a place called home, then they began to think about the future of their children. Education was the key. It would arm their progeny with invincible armor for life. They would not express this idea in the above words – they would just say, “I want my kids to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. They will also need to learn about work and what’s right and what’s wrong, but the family can take care of this part. Let’s get to work on both parts of their education.”

In 1905, one year after the town was founded, J.M. Folts and his son Harry built the first school on Third and West Alice (it is still there) and classes opened for thirty-two children in four grades. Records show a great turnover in teachers and a big increase in pupils. W.J. Biggs was one of the first teachers. He started the second year with thirty-nine pupils and turned them over to T.F. Annis after the first half of that year. The enrollment had reached sixty-four in the one room school. Two rooms were added, and three teachers had 118 students in the third year. A threemember board governed the establishment, headed by Caesar Kleberg. By the fall of 1908 the booming enrollment and depletion of funds mandated new action. Kleberg had to dig into his personal resources to keep the school in operation. An election resulted in enacting taxes for maintenance and operation. Attendance climbed to nearly 300, but there were no funds available for permanent or substantial buildings that were urgently needed.

The school had grown at such a rate that the citizens in the fall of 1908 voted to organize an independent school district. They elected T.M. Colston (Clyde Allen’s grandfather) as superintendent. By the end of the year it was imperative to find finances to build a new school.

Depth of the feelings about education for the children was reflected in a notice published in “The Gulf Coast Record” on December 5, 1908. (Yes, Kingsville had a newspaper by that time)

“Owing to the fact that all my children will attend school, it will be impossible for me to deliver any meat orders after the first of September. I am very sorry to have to take this step, but it is impossible to obtain help that can be depended upon.” Yours very truly, Wm. Niemann

Mr. Niemann owned a butcher shop (meat market) on Fifth Street, Kingsville’s first main street.

Mrs. King came to the rescue. In 1909, she donated land and money for a new school building. On July 21, 1909 the corner stone was dedicated in a ceremony with Mrs. King delivering a handwritten letter presenting her gift to the Trustees.

“Recognizing the fact that every citizen owes public service, I hereby embrace the opportunity to establish in our midst this institute of learning and beg that you do me the honor to accept the same in behalf of the dear children of our prosperous little city. Living Jewels, dropped unstained from Heaven! As I have carefully selected expert house builders for this work, so I would urge upon you the importance of employing expert character builders for the work within.

Theirs will be the duty of molding the living stones in mortar of duty and brotherly love in that building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens!”

According to the Bartlett family story in the Kleberg County History Book the new school was completely equipped including crayons, erasers and even toilet paper.

School bells rang that first year in the twelve-room structure. Eight teachers had 322 students in eight grades. Some kids rode horses or mules to school from their farmhouses. A fence with a stile to enter from Kleberg Avenue surrounded the grounds to keep cows off the campus.

By 1913 over 800 youngsters occupied the classrooms. The basement was utilized for academic purposes. Years later Miss Bridges took over this space for teaching typing, and the click-clack resounded throughout that area of King High.

As the town grew, rooms and other buildings were added to expand the curricula to serve the student population.

In 1964 old King High watched its last class graduate.

The next year students would move into a new school building. The graduates would take with them something more than their diplomas — years of memories–teachers, classmates, events and even misadventures!

Please share these memories with us as old H.M. King High is being restored.

(Kathryn Evans is the author of All Aboard!, book written as part of Kingsville’s Centennial Celebration, which recalls the history of the railroad in Kingsville. Look for more stories about Old King High in future editions.)