Wichita Falls High School

The Coyotes, in red and black, won state titles in 1941, 1949, 1950, 1958, 1961 and 1969, and in 2007 Texas Monthly named the program the best in Texas history. The rival was S. H. Rider High School, and their cross-town game was the Showdown in Falls Town. The school moved in 1924 from its Broad Street building to the Avenue H campus, and the Broad Street building went on as Reagan Junior High. Wichita Falls High closed on May 24, 2024, and its students moved to the new Legacy and Memorial high schools.

What the plaque says

Wichita Falls High School Evolving out of three private schools founded in 1879, the first public school in Wichita Falls opened in 1880 in a log cabin. Five years later the former Wichita County Courthouse was relocated to Tenth and Scott streets for use as a school. The first Wichita Falls High School was built in 1890, and in 1892 the first graduating class, consisting of five students, received diplomas. After undergoing several reorganizations, the Wichita Falls Independent School District was chartered by the Texas Legislature in 1908. A new high school was built and opened in September 1910. Construction of the high school building on Avenue H began on April 24, 1923. The high school changed from an eleven-year curriculum to a twelve-year plan in 1940. Additions to the building occurred in 1953, 1956, and 1977. Since its initial graduating class of five, the student population of Wichita Falls High School has continued to increase. By 1936 4,507 students had graduated from the school. Among the institution's former students are legislators, doctors, attorneys, ministers, entertainers, and business people. The school continues to be a vital part of the community. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kell House Museum — 1.5 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 2.1 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 12 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 19 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Wichita Falls Traction Company — 0.5 mi
• Bethania Hospital — 1.1 mi
• Wichita General Hospital — 1.1 mi
• Midwestern University Desegregation — 1.1 mi