National Register Listing

San Jacinto Senior High School

a.k.a. South End Junior High School; San Jacinto Memorial Building

1300 Holman St., Houston, TX

San Jacinto High School played a prominent role in the development of the Houston educational system as one of the first junior high schools in Houston, TX, and then as the location for many of the Houston Independent School District's experiments with alternative forms of education, primarily in the form of vocational and adult education. The building is the work of three master architects, Layton & Smith, prominent Oklahoma architects; Hedrick & Gottlieb, prolific Houston architects; and Joseph Finger, a significant Houston architect. The period of significance begins in 1914, the year the school first opened, and extends to 1962, the fifty-year limit for the National Register. The building has been incorporated into the Houston Community College central campus and is currently vacant awaiting rehabilitation.

Foundation of the Houston Educational System (1837-1930)

Education in Houston began in the form of small private and parochial schools shortly after the city's founding. Mrs. E. A. Andrews opened one of the first of these private schools in November of 1837, teaching primarily young ladies but also including a few boys under the age of twelve.' According to an article in the Houston Telegraph and Texas Register, Mrs. Andrews offered "the various branches of English education." Five years later in 1842, the first Roman Catholic Church opened a parochial school at the intersection of Franklin and Caroline Streets and placed it under the administration of the local parish, St. Vincent de Paul.

The first city-owned school was built following a bequest to the city of $5,000 by James H. Stevens, designated for education purposes. After raising an additional $20,000, the city built a two-story, columned, brick building on Capitol Street between Austin and Caroline Streets. The school opened in 1859 as the "Houston Academy." In 1876, as a result of local and state legislation, the Houston mayor and city council took control of all of the city's private schools, making them free to residents and establishing the Houston Public School System. The schools were administered by a board of trustees and a board of examiners, each composed of three members appointed by the mayor and subject to confirmation by the city council.

As Houston's population grew during the last decades of the nineteenth century, so did enrollment in the city's public schools. During the 1877-78 school year, the Houston school population totaled 1,617 pupils; by the 1899-1900 year, however, enrollment had reached 6,000. Between 1876 and 1900, the school curriculum underwent major changes as standard courses of study for grades one through eleven were established.' Eleven grades were created; the lowest three were referred to as "primary," the next four were called "grammar grades," and the four highest were labeled "normal and high school." By 1893 the city had fourteen schools, three of which the Old Clopper Institute (Houston Academy), the Colored High School, and the Jones School brick." In 1894, to accommodate the growing number of pupils, the city demolished the Clopper Institute and built the Houston High School on the same site. Complete in 1895, the new school contained twenty rooms with 790 seats. Six teachers taught the 214 students."

The two decades following the turn of the century saw major changes in the control of Houston schools, as well as the further evolution of structure and curriculums based on changing national theories in education. From 1900 to 1923, the city of Houston continued to grow with a corresponding rise in public school enrollment. In 1905, this expansion reached a size that required the taxing authority and the budgets of the city and the school system to be separated. As a result, the city of Houston's public schools were incorporated into "The Public Schools of the Independent School District of City of Houston, Texas." This change of status allowed the school district to gain a measure of fiscal independence by allowing it the freedom to manage its own resources and spending. Following World War I (WWI), the school population had reached 23,000 students, with a ratio of twenty-eight professional staff for every 1,000 students. By 1923, many Houstonians believed the public school system was strong enough to stand alone as an independent school district without the involvement of the mayor and city council. In fact, many felt that this separation would improve the operation of Houston's schools. R.B. Cousins, superintendent of schools from 1922-23, concurred, suggesting the school system was hindered by its political connections.

On March 20, 1923, the state legislature passed a bill creating the Houston Independent School District, entirely separating it from the City of Houston.

At the same time that these changes in management were occurring, Houston and the nation were experiencing a growing discontent with the established organization of schools, which consisted of the elementary grades encompassing one through eight and high school encompassing grades nine through twelve. School systems everywhere were witnessing poor attrition rates between elementary and high schools; many students were either dropping out directly after elementary school or were so unprepared for high school that they left after a few months of struggling."

Education reformers placed the blame for this trend on the existing rigid curriculum.

The then-current standards favored only a select few who could work well within the established system while discouraging all others; those who excelled beyond or fell short of the established standards were culled from the system. In response, a new emphasis was placed on catering to the individual needs of the student through broadening options and courses of study. These new methods included individual instruction, multiple courses, and elective studies, departmental teaching, promotion by subjects, vocational and pre-vocational classes, and educational and vocational guidance." Although the problems with the educational system extended throughout all grades, educators focused on the years surrounding students' transition from elementary to high school due to the critical number of students dropping out at that stage.

In 1913 Houston built the city's first two junior high schools, North End Junior High School and South End Junior High School, and opened them to students in the fall of 1914. In his report to the school board following the school year, the Houston Superintendent of Schools, P. W. Horn, discussed the means by which these two junior high schools would better cater to the needs of all preadolescent children and listed ten methods including:

1. Using a more mature method of instruction than in elementary school but less like the university methods used in high school.

2. Using a more mature method of discipline, unlike those used for young children in elementary schools, but not utilizing those means sometimes used in high school.

3. By keeping many children who would ordinarily drop out at this time in school, by catering to their individual needs and urging them to complete senior high school.

4. By providing a convenient stopping place for those students who cannot remain in high school for four years, keeping them in school for at least a few more years, and better preparing them for work in the modern world than had they simply completed elementary school and dropped out.

5. By providing more male teachers for boys.

6. By providing a more flexible course of study and allowing students more freedom to choose electives both in junior high school and in the earlier grades of senior high school.

7. By allowing brighter pupils in the seventh grade to begin work in certain high school subjects, especially when beginning a foreign language.

8. By bringing high schools geographically closer to students' homes so that they will not be forced to drop out as a result of distance. (This problem was already addressed with the junior high schools' locations at the north and south ends of the city, providing easy access to a maximum of the population.)

9. By placing a greater emphasis on industrial and physical education.

10. By placing a greater emphasis on the child as an individual and providing a personal touch to his or her education.

Both North End and South End Junior High Schools proved to be a success, with enrollment increasing by 50% from 1914 to 1923. By 1924, the city had added two other junior high schools, West End and the Heights Junior High Schools.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Houston and the rest of the country experienced two paradoxical decades of prosperity and confidence of the Roaring 20s followed by the welfare lines and fiscal collapse of the Great Depression. Both eras had a profound effect on the landscape and structure of the Houston educational system. Houston and Harris County's population continued to grow, rising 93% from 1920 to 1930 as more and more oil companies located their offices in the city following the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901. In 1924, the school administration, recognizing the inadequacy of its current facilities, launched an $11,000,000 building program."

By 1929, the city had built more than twenty new elementary buildings, twelve junior high school buildings, and two new senior high school buildings bringing the total number of buildings owned by the independent school district to 105 and valued at $22,000,000. In addition to the construction of new buildings, this building program also encompassed the acquisition of grounds for twenty-seven new schools, some future sites and some additions, and the improvement of existing facilities. It was during this building program that South End Junior High School was converted into San Jacinto Senior High School in 1926 to better meet the needs of the surrounding district.

South End Junior High School (1914-1925)

As one of Houston's first junior high schools, South End Junior High School was intended to serve the South End District of Houston (now known as Midtown) while its counterpart, North End, provided for the north end of the city. Both schools were intended to be completely innovative, following the new theories of education and junior high schools, and to serve as models for future junior high schools. In his book, The Junior High School, professor of education at Columbia University, Thomas H. Briggs, described the unique needs of a junior high school campus. He acknowledges the essential needs of all school buildings, including those of proper lighting, heating, space, and toilets; but he also emphasizes the need for additional facilities at this new type of school to address the unique needs of preadolescents between elementary and high school. Briggs' recommendations include a large enough space that will allow enough students to gather and begin to differentiate according to aptitude and inclination; large grounds with space for physical training and agriculture; gymnasiums; assembly halls; rooms dedicated to extra-curricular activities; cafeterias; and laboratories, shops, and other dedicated spaces for exploratory and vocational training.

Architects Layton & Smith followed these basic tenets in their design of South End Junior High School, providing spaces for traditional, physical, and vocational education. Built with fireproof construction, the building was located on ten acres in the heart of Houston's south-end residential district. The spacious grounds provided space for a football and baseball field, an open-air theater, and a large front lawn on which students could congregate. On the interior, the first floor was primarily devoted to vocational and physical education. The east wing held a manual training department with a drafting room, pattern shop, turning shop, foundry, and cabinet-making and finishing rooms. The west wing held the seventy-five by twenty-five-foot swimming pool with adjoining girls' and boys' locker rooms. This indoor pool was unique to South End as funds ran out before one could be completed at North End Junior High School. Two classrooms, a kitchen with boys' and girls' lunch rooms, a club room, and an emergency sick room were also located on the first floor. More traditional academic rooms dominated the second floor, including seven classrooms, a large study hall, and administrative offices. The floor also included elements of the new educational theories, such as three laboratories, a fifty by ninety-foot gymnasium with nineteen-foot ceilings, and an 850-capacity auditorium with a large stage and dressing rooms. The central section of the third floor held eight classrooms, a study hall, a music room, an art room, and a large commercial room. The domestic science department encompassed the entire west wing of the third floor with two laboratories, a sewing room, an art room, a laundry, and a model dining room. The east wing held the upper section of the auditorium with access to the balcony.

In addition to providing state-of-the-art space for junior high school students, South End also served as a community resource. Community groups could use the club rooms, the auditorium, or the gymnasium, while the indoor pool was available for rent. According to a newspaper article, Rice Co-eds were one of the groups taking advantage of these facilities, renting the pool from 5:00-6:00 every Friday night.

Upon its opening in the fall of 1914, Mr. F. M. Black served as the principal of South End with a faculty of thirty-eight and a student body of about eight hundred." By 1916 enrollment had reached 924 and the still-new school building was at capacity. By 1923 enrollment at South End had reached 1,167 and far exceeded the capacity of the school building. In an effort to ease the cramped conditions, school administrators split the student body into two separate schedules with one shift attending school from early morning to 1:00 P.M. and the second arriving in the late morning and remaining until 5:00 P.M. The majority of the other Houston Schools were experiencing the same overcrowding and many were resorting to a similar split schedule. In response to this issue and the poor condition of many of the school buildings, the Houston Independent School District embarked on an $11,000,000 building program. This plan involved the addition of seven new high schools for the city, one of which was created by converting South End Junior High School into a senior high school.

San Jacinto Senior High School (1926-1970)

In 1926 South End Junior High School officially became San Jacinto Senior High School. The students and faculty decided on the name following a vote. "San Jacinto" was chosen because all the athletic teams already had an "S" and a "J" on their uniforms and with this choice they would not be required to purchase new sets. Mr. T. H. Rogers served as principal and Genevieve Johnson was the Dean of Students with a faculty of seventy-six in English, Math, Vocational, Language, History, and Science courses. Enrollment for the year was 2,384 and the first graduating class that spring had thirty-one students with ages ranging from thirteen to eighteen.

While in attendance at San Jacinto Senior High School, students had the option to participate in a number of sports and activities. Potential school activities in 1927 included Latin Club, Dramatics, Debate, Girls' Booster Club, Boys' Booster Club, Spanish Club, Literary Society, Ye Scribes, San Jacinto Hi-Y Club, Pep Club, Home Craft Club, Sketch Club, Music and Drama, and Orchestra. In sports, the school competed as the San Jacinto Golden Bears in football, girls' volleyball, girls' and boys' basketball, track, and boys' and girls' tennis. The student body had two publications, a literary magazine titled The Forum and the Campus Cub, a bi-monthly newspaper. As the school expanded, so did the number of activities and sports. In 1929 the school added a French Club and a Cadet Corps with three companies, A, B, and Band that would later become the US Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) in 1936. In 1932, an ice hockey team was formed, and bowling and cheerleading were added in 1945.

Between 1923 and 1930, enrollment in Houston high schools had increased from about 3,000 to just over 8,000 pupils. In 1928, HISD hired Hedrick & Gottlieb to design an addition to the high school to meet the needs sparked by this steady increase. The resulting addition involved a four-story tower and three-story wing and accommodated additional classrooms, office space, and a stair held in the tower. The tower and wing match the same fireproof, reinforced concrete construction of the original building. A second gymnasium of masonry construction with concrete floors, reinforced brick walls, and exposed steel trusses was also included in the 1928 building program. The gym is located south of the new east wing and east of the original 1914 building. That same year, the largest class of any Houston high school graduated from San Jacinto Senior High School, with 97% continuing their education in college. Two hundred of these students applied to the Rice Institute.

By 1936, however, the school had once more outgrown its facilities, leading HISD to hire Joseph Finger to design a west wing addition to match the earlier east wing. A band practice building was added in 1951 to the southwest of the new west wing. In 1960, two three-story reinforced modern-style classrooms and lab buildings were added to the front lawn. Both of these buildings have since been demolished. In 1968, a new one-story pie-shaped building connected the 1928 wing to the gymnasium, giving the sprawling building its current configuration.

Throughout its forty-four-year history, San Jacinto Senior High School has graduated a number of renowned alumni. Walter Cronkite graduated from San Jacinto in 1933 and went on to become an anchorman at CBS Evening News from 1962-1981. During his time at San Jacinto, he was editor of the school newspaper the Campus Cub. In an interview for National Mentoring Month, a project spearheaded by the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR, and the Corporation for National and Community Service, he recalled his mentor Fred Birney who taught at San Jacinto and inspired his career in journalism:

I went to San Jacinto High School in Houston, Texas, in the 1930s, and was fortunate to come in contact with a man who would inspire me to become a career print and broadcast journalist. Fred Birney was a pioneer in high school journalism. Very few high schools at that time even taught journalism, and many schools didn't have their own student newspaper.

Fred talked the Houston Board of Education into allowing him to teach a journalism class once a week at three local high schools, one of which was San Jacinto. He was a newspaperman of the old school and taught us a great deal about reporting and writing. He also became a sponsor of the San Jacinto High School newspaper, the Campus Cub. Under his tutelage, we published it monthly, whereas it had previously been published in a casual manner, just three or four times a year. During my junior year, I was the sports editor of the Campus Cub and its chief editor in my senior year...

[Fred] was well-connected with the three newspapers in Houston. During the summer of my junior year, he secured his interested students jobs as copy boys and girls with the Houston Post. Then, after I graduated in 1933, I became the campus correspondent for the Houston Post at the University of Texas at Austin and worked at the college paper, the Daily Texan, working my way up to become its editor. In my sophomore year, I got a weekend job working as an exalted copyboy for the International News Service at the state capitol, but I was also asked to cover committee meetings of the state legislature...

In 1950 I was hired by CBS and became further involved in radio and television.
Fred Birney wouldn't admire the type of journalism going on today. He was always big on journalistic integrity. "You've got to remember that everyone you write about is a human being," he would tell us, "not just a headline."

We exchanged several letters until his death, shortly after my high school graduation. He taught me so much in those high school classes, and by securing me those early jobs, he cemented my desire to be a reporter for the rest of my life. He was my major inspiration. I always credit Fred Birney for my career.

Dr. Denton Arthur Cooley (b. 1920), a native Houstonian and renowned American heart surgeon graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1937. In an interview on file with the Houston Public Library Digital Archives, he remembers fondly his athletic endeavors at San Jacinto where he played basketball and was part of the All-City basketball team. Race car driver Anthony Joseph "A.J." Foyt Jr. (b. 1935) attended San Jacinto High School. He became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times. His championship titles include USAC Stock Car, NASCAR, and IROC. Kathryn "Kathy" J. Whitmire (b. 1946) graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1964.

Houston's first female mayor, she served five consecutive two-year terms from 1982- 1991. Wildcatter Glenn McCarthy also attended San Jacinto High School. McCarthy's nicknames include "Diamond Glenn" and "King of the Wildcatters" due to his rags-to-riches story and the loss and recapture of several fortunes. He developed Houston's famed Shamrock Hotel and reportedly inspired the character Jett Rink, played by James Dean, in the movie Giant.

Houston Junior College (1927-1934)

The advent of junior high schools in Houston was the result of educators considering the needs of individual students and their development and looking beyond the traditional strict curriculum. At the same time and in addition to this major reorganization, HISD had also begun to consider the needs of other subgroups of students for example, exceedingly bright pupils, students with subnormal mentality, and those students who had to work. Adults who wished to attend college but could either not afford or did not have time to attend a four-year institution were included in this consideration.

As a result, following a conference with representatives from the State Department of Education, the University of Texas, the Rice Institute, and Sam Houston State Teachers College, the Board of Education established the Houston Junior College in the spring of 1927. The first session began on June 5, 1927, with an enrollment of 232 students studying Education, Spanish, English, History, Biology, Art, and Physical Education.
Classes were held in the San Jacinto Senior High School Building with a faculty mainly recruited from the staff of the University of Texas and Sam Houston State Teachers College. These classes and others continued at San Jacinto until 1934 when the Houston Junior College became a four-year private university under the control of HISD. At this time, classes moved to other high schools and churches in Houston until the first University of Houston building, the Cullen Memorial Building, opened in 1939.

Houston Technical Institute

After the final class graduated from San Jacinto Senior High School in 1970, the Houston Technical Institute took over the campus." Little information could be found on the institution beyond the fact that it continued part of the original purpose of the building in promoting vocational training.

Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

The same year the Houston Technical Institute opened at the old San Jacinto Senior High School building, HISD founded the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). This new school was intended to provide highly specialized and intensive training in the arts to gifted young artists while at the same time providing them with a high school diploma. Classes began in the fall of 1971 with an enrollment of 200 and were located in a renovated synagogue, the Houston Technical Institute, Houston Community College, and the Trinity Episcopal Church. In 1981, HSPVA moved to 4001 Stanford Street, formerly the Montrose Elementary School.

Houston Community College

Following the conversion of the Houston Junior College into the four-year state school University of Houston, the city was left without a junior college. It was not until 1971 that Houston voted to create the Houston Community College System (HCCS) to replace this resource and share facilities with the HISD. The opening enrollment in the fall of that year was 5,711 with courses focusing on vocational and occupational training. As part of the HISD, the Houston Technical Institute (located in the former San Jacinto Senior High School building), held some of HCCS' early classes. Later, the San Jacinto Senior High School building became part of the HCC Central Campus with an enrollment of 11,445 in the fall of 2001. The building, renamed the San Jacinto Memorial Building, held courses in banking, cosmetology, lifestyle arts, and design, and held a fitness center and administration offices. In 2007, HCC opened a new glass-fronted administration building on the front east lawn of the school. In 2010, the San Jacinto Memorial Building was closed for rehabilitation while the interior was rebuilt to allow for multimedia classrooms.

Layton & Smith, Architects, 1914 Building

The City of Houston chose Oklahoma architects Layton & Smith to design the 1914 South End Junior High School. The architects had extensive experience in institutional design, particularly in high schools and junior high schools. They were also known for their sturdy and fireproof designs, a factor that appealed to the city after their decision to build only fireproof schools following the 1912-1913 school year.

Solomon Andrew Layton was a significant Oklahoma architect who greatly influenced the built fabric of the territory and then-fledgling state from 1902 to 1943. Born in Lucas County, Iowa, in 1864, Layton learned carpentry and building from his family during his childhood. In 1887, he began his career as an architect in Denver, Colorado before moving to El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1902 and then establishing a practice in Oklahoma City shortly after.

Layton partnered with many architects throughout his career, including George Forsyth, S. Wemyss Smith, Jewell Hicks, and James W. Hawk. With these men, Layton focused on public, institutional, and commercial architecture, contributing more than one hundred buildings to the Oklahoma City-built fabric. The Oklahoma State Capitol, initiated in 1914, is the most significant of these buildings. With various partners, Layton designed at least sixteen Oklahoma county courthouses, forty-six Oklahoma City public schools (including the city's first five high schools and six junior high schools), several corporate headquarters, office towers, department stores, mental hospitals, and prisons. His firm's work also includes numerous buildings on the University of Oklahoma-Norman campus. Layton's extant buildings in Oklahoma City include the Oklahoma County Courthouse, Central High School (restored as One Bell Central), the Oklahoman Building (now the YMCA), the Braniff and Petroleum towers (now incorporated into Kerr-McGee corporate headquarters), the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company building, the Journal-Record Building (originally Shrine Temple and now the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial), the MidContinent Building at Northwest Thirteenth and Classen Drive, and the Governor's Mansion and Wiley Post Building.
Layton was also responsible for the design of the two Skirvin Hotels. The first Skirvin Hotel was built as a hobby of oil multimillionaire William B. Skirvin and served as a gathering location for many of Skirvin's oil-baron friends.

It is this connection with the oil industry and Layton's extensive institutional and educational work that could be the reason he was selected to design South End Junior High School in Houston. Layton holds the Oklahoma state record at twenty-two for the greatest number of buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places. His works exhibit stability and a design aspect that greatly influenced the city's development. Put to the test during the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, eleven of Layton's downtown buildings sustained damage yet remained structurally sound.

Hedrick & Gottlieb, Architects, 1928 Addition

Significant Houston firm, Hedrick & Gottlieb, was chosen to design the 1928 addition to San Jacinto Senior High School. Known for its Neo-Classical commercial buildings, the firm became the successor to the Fort Worth firm, Sanguinet & Staats. Hedrick and Gottlieb were partners from 1925-1930 following the retirement of Sanguinet and Staats. In 1930, Gottlieb left the practice and the company became 'Wyatt C. Hedrick."

Of the two men, Hedrick proved to be the more significant. At one time, his was considered to be the third-largest architectural practice in the United States.

Hedrick was born on December 17, 1888, in Chatham, Virginia, to Washington Henry and Emma Cephas Hedrick. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Roanoke College in 1909, and then an engineering degree from Washington and Lee University in 1913, Hedrick began work for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation of Boston as a construction engineer in their Dallas office. A year later he began his own construction company in Fort Worth, TX, which he led until 1921 when he became a partner in the firm Sanguinet & Staats. Gottlieb also bought a limited partnership in the firm, making the Houston office's name "Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick & Gottlieb."

Throughout his career, Hedrick designed a number of significant buildings both with partners and on his own. Some of the most important include the Shamrock Hotel (1949, demolished); the South Main Baptist Church (1924 with Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick & Gottlieb); the Old Houston National Bank (1928 with Gottlieb, NR); John Marshall Junior High School (1925 with Gottlieb); the Sam Houston Hotel (1924 with Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick & Gottlieb); and the William P. Hobby Airport (1954).

Hedrick also designed a number of school buildings for various school districts and universities including Texas Tech University, Texas Christian University, and Texas Wesleyan College.

Joseph Finger, Architect, 1936 Addition

Prominent Houston architect Joseph Finger was chosen to build the Neo-Classical 1936 addition with Art Deco tower to San Jacinto High School. His addition was to mirror the 1928 Hedrick & Gottlieb addition.

Joseph Finger was born on March 7, 1887, in Bielitz, Austria, to Henri and Hani Finger. Following the completion of his primary, secondary, and technical education in Bielitz, he immigrated to the United States in 1905. Finger initially settled in New Orleans, LA, but moved to Houston three years later in 1908. There, he worked in the branch office of Dallas architect C. D. Hill and Co. In 1912, Finger became a junior partner of Houston architect Lewis Sterling Green. From 1914 to 1919 he partnered with James Ruskin Bailey and worked with Lamar Q. Cato from 1920 to 1923. Finger then practiced under his own name from 1923 to 1944, before working in partnership with George W. Rustay until his death in 1953.

During his career, Finger built extensively throughout Houston and the surrounding area. Beth Israel Temple (now the Houston Community College Heinen Theater, NR, RTHL, SAL) was one of his first works in the early 1920s. His other religious works include the Congregation Beth Israel Temple (1925), Congregation Beth Israel Mausoleum (1935), and the Congregation Beth Yeshurun Synagogue (1949).

Finger's commercial and office work includes the American National Insurance Company Building in Galveston (1913), the A.C. Burton Auto Showroom (1929), and the Clarke Courts printing plant (1936, NR). He also designed retail stores for Everitt-Buelow (1926), Levy's (1930), and Battlestein's (1923, 1936, 1950), in addition to Byrd's Department Store. During the 1930s, Finger worked on many public buildings, including the second Jefferson Davis Hospital with Alfred Finn (1937, demolished), Houston City Hall (1939, NR), and the Houston Municipal Airport Terminal and Hangar (1940, NR).

Finger's extensive work in Houston shaped the city's appearance and growth, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s. His Art Deco works like Houston City Hall and the Houston Turn-Verein (1929, demolished) placed Houston at the forefront of modern architecture, demonstrating the city's drive to embrace modern ideas and technology in its built environment.

Conclusion

The City of Houston built San Jacinto Senior High School to be a testing ground for new educational theories and a model for future schools. As such it has played a significant role in the development of the Houston educational system beginning with South End Junior High School and the Houston Junior College and continuing with Houston Community College. The building was designed by Oklahoma architects Layton & Smith in the Neo-Classical style with additions by prominent Houston architects, Hedrick & Gottlieb and Joseph Finger.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2012.