Before North Fort Worth incorporated as a city (1902), schools were opened for the children living north of the river. Only a few businesses besides the stockyards were located north of the river and homes, ranches and farms were scattered around the area.

The original home of North Fort Worth’s first school was a one-room schoolhouse built in 1872 to serve the community then known as Marine.  In place of chalkboards, areas of the walls were painted black. A second school was built in 1894 and the original school house was used as a church before being moved to Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village in 2003. All grade levels comprised the North Fort Worth School, which moved to  215 NE 14th Street in 1905, the current location of M. G. Ellis Primary School.

North Fort Worth was annexed into Fort Worth in 1909 and the schools became part of FWISD.  After being incorporated into the Fort Worth School District, the renamed North Side High School moved to Circle Park in 1914 and to the site of  J. P. Elder Middle School in 1919 before finding its permanent home in 1937.

The Schools of
North Fort Worth

©2010 North Fort Worth
Historical Society

Marine School was renovated and moved to Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village in 2003.

North Fort Worth School 1912

As North Fort Worth grew more and more schools were needed. In 1905 North Fort Worth School moved to the current site of M. G. Ellis Primary School. The school was renamed North Side High School in 1909 after being incorporated into the FWISD. It moved one more time before finding its permanent home in 1937.

Circle Park Elementary opened in 1908 at 2100 Lincoln Avenue. Though it was changed to North Side High School from 1914 to 1919, it returned to being an elementary school and has remained as such. Circle Park Elementary was named after local businessman and youth leader, Manuel Jara, in 1988. The original building was torn down and replaced with the current modern facility in 1989. This was the first FWISD school named for a local Hispanic leader, who is known for saying “kindness is spoken here.”

Ellis Elementary School originally housed the North Fort Worth School until 1914. It then became an elementary school and named for Merida G. Ellis a Civil War veteran and local land developer. The school closed permanently in 1968 and burned down in 1986. The current building was
constructed at 215 NE 14th Street in 1953 and as M. G. Ellis Primary School, is the lone pre-K and kindergarten campus in the district.

Mendoza Elementary School (Denver Avenue). Completed in 1911, this is one of the oldest school buildings in the FWISD. Additions were made to the campus in the 1930s under President F. D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Program. Originally known as Denver Avenue Elementary at 1412 Denver Avenue, the school was renamed on Cinco de Mayo, 1999, for Rufino Mendoza, a local supporter of education for Hispanic students.

Helbing Elementary School (Fostepco Heights). After North Side High School moved to its current site in 1937, the leftover frame buildings were used to create a new school for the Fostepco Heights neighborhood. In 1948 the school moved to its current building at 3524 N. Crump Street, and was renamed in honor of noted north Fort Worth physician, Hugh V. Helbing, who reportedly delivered over 5,000 babies during his
56-year career.

Washington Heights Elementary at 3215 N. Houston Street opened in 1894 . It was originally a one-room schoolhouse that included all grades. It moved into the building seen here in 1918 and was incorporated into the FWISD in 1923. The auditorium to the left of the main
building was constructed in 1937. Washington Heights moved into its current underground facility in 1979 to escape the noise from nearby
Meacham Field.

Recently opened elementary schools in the North Fort Worth area include: Cesar Chavez Primary School at 3710 Deen Rd., opened in 2002 and serves Pre-K through second grades, and Dolores Huerta Elementary School, opened in 2004 at 3309 W. Long Avenue. Both schools were named for the cofounders of the United Farm Workers of America organization.

Thank you to the Billy Sills FWISD Archive Center for many of these historic photographs and to Jacob Blackwell for the research for the project.

Circle Park Elementary ~1910

Fostepco  Heights Elementary

Students at Denver Avenue Elementary in 1912.

1905 North Fort Worth Public School—later renamed Ellis Elementary

North Side Middle Schools

North Fort Worth has two middle schools: J. P. Elder and W. A. Meacham . Elder Middle School is located at 709 NW 21st Street and is named after John Peyton Elder, the head livestock buyer for Swift and Company for many years and a member of the Fort Worth Board of Education. Originally the main building at the former NS Middle School, it was constructed in 1927. The red brick annex at the south end of the campus originally served as North Side High School from 1919-1937 and as Technical High School from 1937 to 1955.

Meacham Middle School opened in 1952. Named after W. A. Meacham, whose career in education lasted from 1911 to 1960, it was originally to be called Diamond Hill Middle School.

Pictured left is the 1937  District Football Champions in front of Tech High School, now J. P. Elder MS.

Diamond Hill Schools

The original Diamond Hill School was a two-room structure built in 1903 in the southeast corner of a pasture a few miles north of Fort Worth, Texas. It was situated at the same location as the house that now stands, facing east, on the corner of NE 28th and Oscar Streets in Diamond Hill. It was classified as a county school and Mrs. Estes Ritchey was the first superintendent. In 1905 the school was moved to the site on which Diamond Hill School now stands.

The west building of the school was built in 1921. A full sized gymnasium occupied the first floor along with a kindergarten room and three class rooms for the primary children. The third floor was made into an auditorium with seating capacity for seven hundred.

During the early twenties the Diamond Hill School was known to be in the center of the richest school district in the United States. Taxes from the packing plants, the oil mill, and other industries went into the treasury of the school.

In 1924 Diamond Hill School was made a part of the Fort Worth Public School System. Mr. A.D. Roach was the first principal at Diamond Hill after it became a city school. The school moved to its current location in 1952. The old buildings were torn down in 1972.

             *Article provided by Dalynn Cross 2008, and reproduced in part from the FWISD web site.

Moore Elementary School was originally named Sabine-Jarvis Heights after a lumber company and a prominent Fort Worth family who had originally owned the site. The original structure was erected in 1954 and replaced by the current building in 1957 and renamed in honor of M. H. Moore who served as superintendent of Fort Worth schools from 1915—1931

Pictured above is the three-building Diamond Hill campus completed in 1922. Above right is a photo of Diamond Hill elementary students in 1916.

Rosen Heights Schools
Started as Separate ISD

Sam Rosen Elementary is currently located at 2613 Roosevelt Avenue. Named for the Russian immigrant and noted North Fort Worth real estate developer Sam Rosen Elementary opened in Rosen Heights ISD in 1903 to serve the children of the many people who bought homes in the new neighborhood. Many of these families worked at the stockyards and packing plants. Rosen is also credited with the trolley car route to Rosen Heights and the many other great enterprises he gave to the community.  The original school building, opened in 1909, was torn down in 1988. The current school building was opened in 1927.

W. J. Turner Elementary is named for a Fort Worth rancher who donated the land for the school. Located at 3001 Azle Avenue, the school opened in 1916 as part of the Rosen Heights School  District. Rosen Heights ISD was annexed into the Fort Worth ISD in 1922. The current building opened in 1948.

 

Rosen Elementary about 1946.

The Colored Schools of North Fort Worth

A small, one-room building served as the first structure of the north side school for Negroes. The building, erected in 1906, began its service to the community with Mrs. Luella Lawson as the teacher. A two-room building was later built on Refugio. Mrs. Emma Clayton and Mrs. H. F. Randel served as teachers there.

With the extension of the Fort Worth city limits in 1910, the school site was relocated to the Shiloh Baptist Church. The school operated under the name of the Rosen Heights Colored School with Mrs. Mamie Poole, principal.

In 1912, the school site was again changed with the erection of a two-room building on Lee
Avenue. Seven years later a better location was purchased on Clinton Avenue where a
four-room structure was built. Clinton Avenue School burned in 1921. A new eight-room school was erected on Clinton Avenue and was operated eventually as the Clinton Avenue School and  Kirkpatrick Junior-Senior High School. Economic status, continuous growth, and progress in the community made it evident that better accommodations were necessary for the junior-senior high school. The Board of Education purchased another site for the school. In 1950 a new modern building was built at 3210 Refugio, and the school transferred from Clinton Avenue to the new location. The new school was named Milton L. Kirkpatrick School in honor of the late Professor. During the fall term of 1958-59, a modern building was erected for the elementary school and Kirkpatrick Elementary was transferred from 3201
Refugio to its present building on Lincoln Ave.

The first school for Negroes on the North Side - circa 1906.

 

Clinton Avenue School about 1946.