Old King High School was in ruins after fire. Wood stoves, Kerosene lamps, candles, and open fireplaces were fire hazards faced by folks in early Kingsville. During the summer of the construction of the 1909 Henrietta M. King School, the building almost suffered a fiery fate. There was probably a Fourth of July barbecue near the sight where some youngsters played in wood shavings. They began a Roman candle fight that almost erupted into a holocaust. The sparked fire was snuffed out by a frenzied foot stomping that saved the day!

Years later in the late 1924 or early 1925, the school was not so lucky. Fire gutted the interior, books, classroom materials, and records. The outer walls including the three-dimensional mission façade in front remained standing — a sturdy ghost daring to die.

The shop whistle pierced the wintry air as everyone in town rushed to watch the inferno. Henriola Gregg, a senior student, later wrote that she wept, “partly from sentiment and partly from fear that she would not graduate.” Allena Collins, a freshman, watched sadly. She would no more gather to visit with her friends on the front porch during the lunch hour. However, she was amazed to learn that all the freshman had their Latin books at home, and not a one would have to be replaced.

Where were the fire trucks? The firemen? Kingsville organized a Fire Department in 1909, two years before the town was incorporated. The first vehicle was simply a hose cart owned by the Kingsville Lumber Company. Two gunshots alarmed the citizens of a fire, and every man in town answered the call. The first volunteer to arrive at Sixth and King pushed the cart out. Unfortunately, most structures burned to the ground. A stable fire in 1907 destroyed Bartlett’s hearse ending his undertaking business. On Christmas Eve 1909, the Kleberg bank and adjoining stores went up in flames. Earlier J.J. Williams Store and all the businesses on the north end of Fifth Street, Kingsville’s first main street, burned to ashes. In 1920 a huge conflagration leveled the Railroad’s Roundhouse. Besides business, many home fire ravaged the town.

Finally in 1922 the city purchased an American La France fire truck. I am sure it participated in the fight to save H.M. King. (Today, it rests in the Dallas, Texas Fire Museum waiting to come home to Kingsville. Volunteer firemen renovate these old timer there, making them good as new. Richard Salinas, Chief of the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Department, plans to put Kingsville’s Engine No. 1 on display in the Sixth Street Fire Department building.)

It will be available for parades and other activities in the town. What a nice piece of history. Volunteers who have been a part of rescuing our history include Gene Rogers, Bryan Kreigel, Alvin Greif (deceased), and other long-time volunteers.]

Back to 1925! What to do with the school kids after H.M. King burned? They moved down to the other end of Kleberg Avenue and attended in the Kleberg County Court House.

The District Court Room served as the study hall. The County Court Room housed the seniors as their homeroom. Kids in study hall often watched court proceedings. One student complained that they often smelled cabbage cooking for the prisoners in jail on the top floor of the building.

The community immediately passed a bond issue and construction began to restore the inner portion of King High.

The original outer walls still stand today waiting for a new life.