Site of First Free Public School

The East Side School that opened in 1912 was counted among the most modern schools in East Texas. In 1913 the state education department rated the high school first class, and an eleventh grade was added, with more than 100 students that year. The Tomato Bowl on the hillside was started with Works Progress Administration help and built of red iron ore from local farms, hauled in one truckload at a time. Local histories date the work to 1938, and the stadium has hosted district play continuously since 1940.

What the plaque says

Site of First Free Public School In 1885 a two-story frame structure was built on this site and served as the first free public school in Jacksonville. It was destroyed by a tornado in 1890. A three-story brick building was erected here in 1910-12. Known as the East Side School, it served elementary and secondary students at different times until 1939. After decades of use for school purposes, the hillside stood bare until 1940. In that year a sports stadium, known as the Tomato Bowl, was begun by the Federal Works Progress Administration and the Jacksonville Independent School District. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 24 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 27 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.

More markers nearby

• Jacksonville Independent School District — steps away
• Church Founded by Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis, C.S.A. — 0.4 mi
• Jacksonville College — 0.7 mi
• Fred Douglass School — 0.8 mi