Booker T. Washington School

Two teachers carried this school. George Stevens led it and its predecessors as principal for more than twenty years, and the school grew to about three times its size under him. The neighborhood park opened in 1957 with his name on it. Gloria Echols taught on The Hill for almost twenty years, one of the few women professionals who both lived and worked there, and Watson Street was renamed Echols Street for her. The Brown decision came in 1954, the year the building opened, yet the school stayed segregated until Arlington began desegregating in 1965.

What the plaque says

Booker T. Washington School SERVING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS OF ARLINGTON, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL WAS A VITAL INSTITUTION IN THE CITY. IT HAD ITS ROOTS IN ARLINGTON'S FIRST BLACK SCHOOL, WHICH WAS IN PLACE BY THE 1890s. THE SCHOOL SERVED THE GROWING AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY KNOWN AS THE HILL, LOCATED NORTHWEST OF THE ORIGINAL TOWN BOUNDARIES. THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST FURNISHED ADDITIONAL CLASS SPACE AS NEEDED. IN 1902, THE SCHOOL BECAME PART OF THE NEWLY FORMED ARLINGTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. GEORGE STEVENS AND GLORIA ECHOLS WERE APPOINTED AS TEACHERS, WITH STEVENS ALSO SERVING AS PRINCIPAL; BOTH LIVED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND ARE NOTED FOR THEIR IMPACT IN THE LIVES OF THEIR YOUNG STUDENTS. THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL BUILDING WAS REPLACED AFTER A SEVERE 1903 STORM. STUDENTS ATTENDED THE SCHOOL UNTIL EIGHTH GRADE, AT WHICH POINT THEY WENT TO I.M. TERRELL HIGH SCHOOL IN FORT WORTH. A NEW FACILITY OPENED AT 500 HOUSTON STREET IN 1954, OFFICIALLY NAMED FOR EDUCATOR BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. THE BUILDING HAD EIGHT CLASSROOMS, AN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, AND A CAFETERIA; A GYMNASIUM WAS ADDED LATER. GEORGE STEVENS CONTINUED TO SERVE AS PRINCIPAL OF THE INSTITUTION. IN 1965, ARLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEGAN FULL DESEGREGATION. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL CLOSED AND BECAME VEDA KNOX SCHOOL, A FACILITY FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS. IT WAS LATER RENAMED THE METRO MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY. TODAY, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL IS REMEMBERED AS AN ICONIC INSTITUTION IN THE HILL, PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH SKILLS AND EDUCATION THAT WOULD HELP THEM ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN THEIR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIVES. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 11 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 13 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 14 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 15 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.

More markers nearby

• Emmanuel Church of God in Christ — steps away
• The Hill — steps away
• Mount Olive Baptist Church — steps away
• North Side School — 0.3 mi