Marker Details

This school’s lineage begins with one of the oldest schools in Houston. When Mayor James H. Stevens died in 1856, his bequest of $5,000 and matching contributions founded the Houston Academy, with a brick school built on block 77 (bordered by Capitol, Caroline, Austin and Rusk Streets). In Dec. 1860, Gov. Sam Houston spoke against secession at the school; during the Civil War, the building became a Confederate military hospital. The city operated Houston Academy after 1877 and added grades eight through eleven. In 1879, Lucy Williams Brown became the first high school graduate. During the 1880s, the school then called the Clopper Institute and Houston Normal and High School achieved accreditation and began the first high school newspaper in Texas, the Aegis (still in publication). A large new building replaced the original schoolhouse in 1895; the name was changed to Houston High School and later Central High. A 1919 fire razed the school and a third building was completed in 1921.



Creation of the Houston I.S.D. and construction of three new high schools in the 1920s led to another name change to Sam Houston High School. In 1927, Verna Benton organized Texas’ first all-girls marching drum and bugle corps, the Black Battalion (later the Houstonettes and the Tigerettes). The downtown school closed in 1952 and the building became school district offices. In 1955, a new high school built on Irvington Boulevard revived the name and traditions of Sam Houston High. Lyndon B. Johnson, who taught debate and public speaking at Sam Houston in 1930-31, made an education speech here on Nov. 2, 1964, the day before being elected to a full term as U.S. President. Later renamed the Sam Houston Math, Science & Technology Center, this institution has produced thousands of esteemed graduates, military veterans and young citizens of Houston. (2009)



Marker is property of the State of Texas