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KINKAID
SCHOOL by
Archie P. McDonald | |
When
I attended French High School in Beaumont,
Texas, early in the 1950s, we "country hicks" from the north side
of town looked across town at students in the tonier Beaumont High
School, many of whose students lived in the affluent westside along
Calder Avenue. It would have been above our station to know that Beaumont
Highers felt the same way about the scholars at Kinkaid School in
Houston. And when we did
learn of it, all would have been convinced that we lacked both the
money and brainpower to attend Texas' leading preparatory school.
Mrs. Margaret Kinkaid began her school in 1904 because the public
school system would not employ married women as teachers. Since she
wanted both a family and a career, she began her own school in her
home at the corner of Elgin and San Jacinto streets with seven students.
The school closed briefly because of the headmistress' pregnancy with
a second son, then reopened in 1906.
Within
a short time classes had expanded to most of the rooms in the Kinkaid
home, so the house was jacked up and a new first floor of classrooms
constructed. More growth led to the formation of a board of trustees
composed of some of Houston's wealthiest and most influential citizens,
who decided to move Kinkaid School to new facilities at 1301 Richmond
Avenue, and to add high school classes to the curriculum in 1929.
In the 1940s Kinkaid's trustees purchased additional property on which
to construct an additional building for classrooms and a gymnasium.
In 1957 they moved the school to a new forty-acre campus located in
the Memorial section, then regarded as a suburb of Houston.
Margaret
Kinkaid ran the school until 1951, which she was succeeded by John
H. Cooper as headmaster. Mrs. Kinkaid was killed in December 1951
in an automobile accident. Cooper modernized the curriculum by adding
performing and visual arts.
By the 1990s Kinkaid offered instruction from pre-kindergarten through
high school, and a diploma that recommended its graduates for acceptance
at institutions of higher education everywhere.
Most French High hicks, and even the tonier Beaumont Highers, did
all right, too, considering our raising.
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© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
April 24, 2006 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and
author of more than 20 books on Texas. |
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