Austin High School

Austin High took Stephen F. Austin's name in 1953, and in 1956 Black students began attending, seven of them in the first year, which began desegregation at the school. John T. Allan Junior High, whose old building Austin High had occupied since 1925, moved to East Austin the following year. Classes began on Cesar Chavez Street in the fall of 1975, in a complex designed by architect Jay W. Barnes II, and in 1980 a federal court ordered desegregation busing across the Austin district.

What the plaque says

Austin High School A Centennial of Public High School Education Tax supported, locally controlled secondary education began in Austin in 1881 with the establishment of a high school department in the city school district. Plans for implementing the program were developed under the leadership of school board President A. P. Wooldridge and Superintendent John B. Winn. Austin High School opened in September 1881 with an enrollment of 31 girls and 17 boys. Classes were first held on the third floor of West Austin School building at the corner on 11th and Rio Grande. Due to continued growth, classes were later moved to the First Baptist Church building, the Temporary State Capitol, and the Smith Opera House. In 1900 the first high school building was completed at Trinity and 9th. When the enrollment outgrew the facilities there, the high school was moved to the campus of John T. Allan Junior High School on Rio Grande. Austin High School was moved again in 1975, following the completion of a new complex at this site. For over a century, Austin High School has been a leader in the development of innovative educational programs and has maintained a record of academic excellence that reflects the community's concern for the quality of education in Austin. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Barton Springs Pool — 0.7 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.6 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• Harry Ransom Center — 1.7 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 1.7 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.

More markers nearby

• Confederate Men's Home — 0.2 mi
• Travis County — 0.3 mi
• Swedes of Texas — 0.4 mi
• Deep Eddy Bathing Beach — 0.5 mi