Kinkaid High School - Kinkaidian Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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The addition of the Senior High School brought new needs-a library, a science laboratory and a gym. The gymnasium was built through the con- tributions of patrons headed by Mr. R. W. Wier as chairman of a fund raising committee. The mothers, however, should be credited with a signifi- cant part in gathering funds. The group hit upon the idea of operating booths at the annual Field Day and raised 333,500 of the necessary 323,000 in that fashion. As a result, Field Day, which had originated in 1911 to the San Jacinto Street school, grew in importance. The athletic department had grown in keeping with the academic. The first eleven man football team was organized shortly after the opening of the High School. The only impediment to athletic progress, however, was a huge tree that occupied the middle of the playing field at the back of the school. lVlrs. Kinkaid, who treasured each tree as an old friend, refused to bow to progress. The coach, sensing a true need, found his own remedy for the situation. One night he arrived on campus, ax in hand. The following day lVlrs. Kinkaid arrived to find that the school had an enlarged athletic field. With this exception, Mrs. Kinkaid met the needs of her school as they appeared. The result of her work continually appeared in the increased number of students. By l943, the school had grown to include 275 pupils. By 1946, it was necessary to supply a separate building for the High School Department. The property ajoining the school on Richmond Road housed an empty building, formerly an institution for the mentally ill. The house was razed and the site was sold to Kinkaid to provide space for the new building. In l950, a new gym was built to accommodate the then 550 students. During the same year lVlrs. Kinkaid decided to retire after 45 years as a teacher and administrator. With her approval, the trustees chose as her suc- cessor lVfr. John H. Cooper who had been assistant headmaster at the Tower School in Wilmington, Delaware, and headmaster of Keith Day School in Rockford, Illinois. lVlr. Cooper had received his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from Yale University. Upon the retirement of William W. Kinkaid, Mr. Cooper named Dr. Carl Reed as principal of the high school department. ln November l95l, the entire community was saddened by the death of lVIrs. Kinkaid as the result of injuries received in an automobile accident.

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he year 1951-52 saw the extension of the extracurricular program- in sports highlighted by the development of eleven man football and in music with the first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. A parents, committee also organized the first of the schoolls Book Fairs. The termination of February classes resulted in the establishment of a summer school program which has become a permanent feature of the school. The following year, a Beading Laboratory was established. Drama reached a new standard of excellence in the presentation of Shawls HPygmalion', under the direction of Mrs. Johnson, who was also responsible for the planning of many improvements to the stage facilities. A program of Hathletics for all began to over-tax the available field and gymnasium facilities. During the same year, an evaluation of the school revealed to the trustees the need for improvements to the school plant which could not be satisfac- torily accomplished on the existing campus, and, for the first time, serious consideration was given to the possibility of moving the school. A search for a new site was instituted and, during the winter of 1954, twenty-six acres of land on Alief Road was purchased from Bice lnstitute. Building committees under the chairmanship of Mr. J. W. Hershey were organized to make detailed recommendations which subsequently became the basis for the overall plan drawn up by the architects, Lloyd and lVlorgan. Plans were interrupted in the fall of 1955 when the route of the Southwest Freeway was laid across the new school site. The resulting loss in acreage and the likelihood of commercial developments caused the trustees to seek an alternate site. After extensive negotiations, a beautiful forty-acre tract on Buffalo Bayou was purchased with the assistance of Rice lnstitute to whom the Alief site had been returned. Gifts to the Building Fund which had been under the able chairmanship of W. Stewart Boyle totaled nearly 31,000,000 and in De- cember, 1956 contracts were made and construction started on the new school. ln January, the remarkable growth of the school during its first half century was recognized by more than five hundred parents and friends who gathered for the golden anniversary dinner at the Houston Club. On this occasion, the School was able to look back upon fifty years of significant contribution to the educational life of Houston and forward to its life in the splendid new campus which will be occupied in 1957.