Central School
Escuela Central
Central School
In late 1882, the newspaper headline read: "$700 has been subscribed by the citizens of El Paso, Texas in lands, money and all material for the purpose of erecting a public school." So, the mission began. An election took place for a board, selecting O.T. Bassett as the first president, with Mayor Joseph Magoffin overseeing the new school board. In the fall of 1883, El Paso, now a progressive city of 4,000, saw the first El Paso public school officially open. There were 200 students in an old wooden structure. The principal, John Merrill, received $150 a month and used his own furniture. Only one teacher was hired, Anna Moore, and she received $75 a month. Knowing that more needed to be done, Calvin Esterly, the first superintendent, signed a contract to have a new large schoolhouse built that could be for all the students of El Paso. In 1884, it was built on the corner of Myrtle and Campbell streets and was called Central School. EPISD was home to the first public kindergarten class in Texas in 1893 at Central Elementary School. In 1885, the first high school was established and it was on the second floor of that same building. The subjects deemed critical, at that time, included mathematics, grammar and, at the top of the list, penmanship.
Report this entry
More from the same community-collection
El Paso Police Department - 1908
Entire police department in front of police headquarters. Seated ...
Detective Callie Fairley - 1929 - 1952 - El Paso, Texas
Callie Fairley was hired by the city police department as a ...
Officers Bobby Grayson and Milton Lege - 1955
Both men were the first of six Black officers to join the ...
Banner - El Paso Museum of History - 2016
Banner located at 510 North Santa Fe Street - Downtown, El Paso, ...
Opening Ceremony - DIGIE - 2015
Celebrating the opening for the digital wall - first of its kind ...
Opening Ceremony - DIGIE - El Paso, Texas 2015
Victoria Sinclair at the opening for the digital wall - one of a ...
Opening Celebration - DIGIE - 2015
Attending the event was the delegation from Copenhagen, Denmark, ...
Opening Ceremony - DIGIE - 2015
Guests poise for picture at the opening ceremony for the digital ...
El Paso Streetcar - 2016 - El Paso, Texas
Crews from Paso del Norte Trackworks have been working to lay ...
1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division -- 2016
Photograph - Soldiers sitting in front of the Camino Real Hotel ...
