This news article written by Michael Mixerr will be examining the history of a former Austin ISD elementary school site of what was once St. John's Elementary School.
The location of 906 East St. Johns Avenue, Austin, Texas, US 78752 was once the address for the former St. Johns Elementary School from 1958 to 1995. St. Johns Elementary School was once known as St. Johns School. St. John's Elementary School (St. Johns School) was once operated and owned by Austin ISD.
St. John's Elementary School aka St. Johns School was a "negro school" with a large African American student population in the historic St. John's neighborhood of Austin, Texas from 1942 to 1995. St. John's School first operated as St. John's Negro School from 1942 to 1948. Grades 1 through 8 were taught at St. John's School. Grade 9 was added later. High school students attended L.C. Anderson High School after 9th grade. St. John's Elementary School (St. John's School) was named after the historic long gone St. John's Orphanage.
In 1942, St. John's School was built for a capacity of 110 students located at 700 Delmar Avenue which was the first site for St. John's School. St. Johns School operated in an L-plan shaped building that was one story tall. The entire building was constructed out of brick. Foundation was laid out on a beam and tier styled building plan. The foundation was made out of cement and brick. From 1942 until 1958, St. John's School would be located at 700 Delmar Avenue prior to relocating at the 906 East St. Johns Avenue location in 1958.
St. John's School taught grades 1 through 7 in 1942 all the way near to the very end of the 1940s decade. Each grade from 1st grade to 7th grade had 10 students. 2 to 4 teachers taught 110 students. Student population stayed at 100 most of the time.
The name for St. John's School changed from St. John's Negro School in 1948. 1948 is when St. John's School went from being a one-room school to a two-room school. Grade 9 was added, but only for a short period of time. Grades 7 and 9 were held in a separate room.
In 1952, the parking lot was repaved with gravel and limestone. St. Johns School was reorganized and downsized, thus became a 1-7 school teaching grades 1 through 7. Grades 8 and 9 would no longer be taught at St. John's School. Students in those grades went to attend L.C. Anderson High School.
3 additional building were added on as add-ons to the St. Johns School in 1954. By 1956, the school was over capacity and the site needed to be expanded. This led Austin ISD to allocate funding for plans to relocate St. John's School to another location from the 700 Delmar Avenue location. The student population was over 200.
In 1958, Austin Public Schools (now Austin ISD) opened St. John's School in 1958 at the 906 East St. John's Avenue location. The new St. John's School was built for a capacity of 224 students in a one story building. The old St. John's School building was demolished at the 700 Delmar Avenue location was demolished that year. Prior to 1958, the 906 East St. John's Avenue location site was a plot of flat vacant land.
St. John's School was built to replace the existing all black school in the area in the year of 1958. At that point, St. John's School would be the only all-black school outside of East Austin next to Sprinkle School, Manor Colored High School, Manor Negro School, Clayton Vocational Institute, and Littig High School.
In 1969, US Fifth Circuit Court found Austin ISD in noncompliance of not racially integrating their schools. 94% of the student population was African American. St. John's Elementary School and L.C. Anderson High School had a minority population higher than any other Austin ISD school. Its minority population was higher than any AISD school at that time. The neighborhood was rough and the St. Johns School had low performing test scores. This led St. John's School to be closed down a year later. The 1969-1970 school year had 163 students that were all black.
On the date of August 27, 1970, the following Austin ISD schools were shut down by a Federal District Court judge for the US Fifth Circuit Court.: L.C. Anderson High School, Kealing Junior High School, Rice Elementary School, Rosewood Elementary School, and St. John's Elementary School were ordered shut down by a Federal District Court judge.
Finally the court ordered the closing of all-black St. Johns Elementary School and transfer of the St. Johns students to surrounding schools. Those students were dispersed to the other schools on an arbitrary geographical boundary-line basis as a result of that noncompliance.
When St. John's Elementary School was closed, students were sent to Brown Elementary School, Pearce Junior High School (now Pearce Middle School), Winn Elementary School (Winn School), and Andrews Elementary School. For a certain number of odd years, St. John's Elementary School became abandoned. The school sat abandoned for more than 5 years. By 1972 St. John's School was abandoned.
St. Johns Elementary School reopened in 1980. St. John's Elementary School was downsized from a K-5 school to a K-3 school in 1980. From 1980 to 1988 is when St. John's Elementary School operated as a K-3 school where kindergarten through 3rd grade was taught.
In 1988, St. John's Elementary became an alternative school for pregnant teenagers. St. John's School was an alternative school from 1988 to 1995. The name for the school was changed back to St. John's School. Interestingly the school never had a library throughout its history. Mostly young women from ages 16 to 18 attended this alternative school. Age range for this alternative school was from 16 to 19.
On the date of November 8, 1990, a book drive was held by the school to create something the school has never had - a library. For the first time the school would have a library. [Ref.: School for pregnant teens launches library fund, Austin American Statesman, November 8, 1990]
Home Depot bought out land where St. Johns Elementary School was occupying from Austin ISD to build a Home Depot building in 1994. The decision for Home Depot to build a store here was made since the location was close to I 35 as the location was perfect in commerce for their business and clients. The land was purchased for a price of $480,170.
On an agreement in terms of their lease agreement, Home Depot allowed Austin ISD to let St. Johns Elementary School continue to operate until the 1994-1995 school year was complete. This allowed the Austin ISD school district time to gather all their belongings and possessions.Community meetings for parents and PTA about the future of St. John's School were held during the 1994-1995 school year.
In 1995, St. John's Elementary School was demolished to make way for construction of a new Home Depot. Summer of 1995 is when this Home Depot location was open for business. Traces of the St. John's School were no longer visible or extant.
The land that once housed a Home Depot and a car dealership was purchased for $6.9 million dollars with a 2006 public safety bond to eventually become a new police substation and municipal court. City of Austin was going to use this Home Depot location as space for government offices, Austin PD headquarters, and a new animal shelter. Austin PD (APD) headquarters were supposed to relocate there but preferred to stay located downtown. Due to an October 2008 dispute on where to build a new animal shelter, the city never moved forward with those plans. Nothing ever happened.
This Home Depot was closed in 2008. The reason why this Home Depot closed was also due to building code issues and also due to a lack of business. Parts of the building were not handicap accessible which is odd because this Home Depot was built in 1995. This Home Depot location has been abandoned since 2008 ever since getting bought out by the City of Austin.
Currently as of December 2017 and January 2018, the City of Austin and Austin Resource Recovery are using the building for storage. Compost bins occupy the inside of this former Home Depot building. For now the site sits abandoned collecting dust and vandalism which is truly an eyesore to the St. Johns neighborhood. Over the years, this former Home Depot building has been plastered over with graffiti mostly by the front entrance. Some areas of the building are covered with mold.
Future plans are being plotted by City of Austin for this building location to relocate municipal government offices into this building. However the building needs a new roof and not considered inhabitable by code enforcement officials. So the building might need to be demolished. So far… Nothing has been implemented yet.
St. John's Elementary School was located at 906 East St. Johns Avenue, Austin, Texas, US 78752. The address for this Home Depot location was 7211 North Interstate 35 Frontage Road, Austin, Texas, US 78752.
*St. Johns Elementary School also went under the names of St. John's School, St. Johns Negro School, St. Johns Negro School, St. Johns School, and St. John's Elementary School.
*St. Johns Elementary School had the highest minority population of all AISD schools at one point.
*This location was going to be a rehabilitation clinic at one point. However that plan never occurred or happened. Instead the building was transformed into a storage unit for the City of Austin.
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