Moses Menger Elementary School

The name on the school was a second one. Moses Menger was born Moses Umbach in Toronto in 1860, the eldest of nine children of a minister. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1880 and deserted about fifteen months later, fleeing home to Canada. He returned to the United States under his mother's maiden name, taught in Austin, Flatonia and Hallettsville, and reached Corpus Christi in 1891. He taught mathematics here for 29 years and twice served as superintendent. When he died on April 1, 1920, the city asked businesses to close for his funeral.

What the plaque says

Moses Menger Elementary School Moses Menger Elementary School opened on South Alameda Street in January 1929 to serve students in Corpus Christi. It was the first Corpus Christi school built outside of the city's central area extent, helping to initiate development in the community's south side. The school is located on property that was once part of Camp Scurry, home to the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Regiments of the Texas National Guard from 1916 through 1918. The elementary school was named for educator Moses Menger, who was born on September 8, 1860 in Toronto, Canada. He graduated from Toronto University and later migrated to Texas as a railroad surveyor. Menger taught in Austin, Hallettsville and Flatonia before settling in the Corpus Christi area. He began serving as a mathematics instructor and principal of Corpus Christi High School in 1891. In 1913, he served as superintendent before returning to teach high school mathematics. For a short time in 1920, he again served as superintendent until his death in April of that year. Menger Elementary has been a leader in education since its early years. The school had the first elementary library in the district. Teachers and administration have also stressed fine arts; in 1929, classrooms were equipped with phonographs and radios, which were provided through various fundraising efforts. Parents have also taken a vital role in their children's education through the Menger Parent Teachers Association, which organized shortly after the school opened. Today, Moses Menger Elementary School continues to be a leading educational institute, serving the children of Corpus Christi. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mirador de la Flor — 2.1 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 3.0 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 3.2 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 3.3 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Camp Scurry — 0.3 mi
• Sisters of the Incarnate Word — 0.5 mi
• Arthur Edward Spohn, M.D. and Spohn Hospital — 0.7 mi
• First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi — 0.9 mi