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 Bridgeport Schools
N 33° 12.752 W 097° 45.176
14S E 616219 N 3675541
Texas Historical Marker at 1407 Carpenter St, noting this as the former site of the 1929 Bridgeport School, also providing some history of its predecessors and education in the community.
Waymark Code: WM14YQE
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/13/2021
Views: 3
The 1929 school building can be seen in the 2013 Google Maps Street View, with a few of those preserved remnants visible above the entrance.
Marker Number: 22507
Marker Text:
Though the Bridgeport community dates from 1860, documentation of early schools is incomplete. There are accounts of schools held in private homes, some churches, and the Masonic Lodge at its original site in Old Bridgeport along the Trinity River. In 1882, a two room school costing $1,800 was built near the company store in Old Town. The school had a dirt floor and log seats. Teacher salaries were paid for by subscription of the students.
After Bridgeport relocated to the east along the Rock Island Railroad, a new school site was selected in 1894 at Cates and 11th streets on Methodist Hill. In 1902, a bond election passed for a new school, which was a two-story frame building with seven classrooms and an assembly hall. A larger brick school, completed in 1910, was three stories with 13 rooms for a cost of $25,000. The Texas legislature created the Bridgeport Independent School District in 1917. When nearby coal mines were at their peak of activity and many families of miners from Mexico were recruited to the area, William John gave land near the mines for a school named Mexican School No. 1 Camp No. 1. In 1930, this separate school closed and all students attended schools in Bridgeport.
A new school on Carpenter Street was completed in 1929 and, besides classrooms, included a tax office, superintendent's office and an assembly hall. Later campus improvements included a gym, band hall, homemaking cottage and agriculture building. Bridgeport athletic teams took the unusual names "Bullies" (later "Bulls") and "Sissies." The Carpenter Street campus was the high school until 1958, then became a middle school, additional school district purposes, and later a city facility. Area schools continue to provide an educational and social focus for the community. (2019)
Marker is Property of the State of Texas
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