Details for North Dallas High School

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5507014628

Data

Marker Number 14628
Atlas Number 5507014628
Marker Title North Dallas High School
Index Entry North Dallas High School
Address 3120 Haskell Ave
City Dallas
County Dallas
UTM Zone 14
UTM Easting 706535
UTM Northing 3632490
Subject Codes
Marker Year 2008
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark No
Marker Location
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size 27" x 42"
Marker Text The city's fifth high school opened in 1922 on the far north edge of Dallas. At the time, there were three high schools for Caucasian students (Bryan Street, Oak Cliff and Forest) and one for African Americans (Booker T. Washington). The school board responded to growing enrollment with plans for a new school on John H. Cole's farm, the site of the first Texas State Fair in 1886. Board member Clinton Russell chose the site and helped plan the school. He took trips at his own expense to study schools in other cities, and he visited the site daily to personally supervise construction. William B. Ittner of St. Louis, Missouri, who designed hundreds of schools across the U.S., was chosen as architect of North Dallas High School (NDHS). The doors opened on February 13, 1922 with 650 students and E.B. Comstock as the first principal. The first graduating class began an alumni association and established two main events: an Easter morning breakfast and a banquet soon after Christmas. The school mascot (Bulldogs), yearbook (Viking) and colors (orange and white) were chosen in the first few years. The Bulldogs captured many city athletic championships, and an Oct. 1930 football game between North Dallas and Sunset High in the new Fair Park Stadium (later the Cotton Bowl) drew 45,000 fans, then a state record for a high school event. Many distinguished alumni have had notable careers in business, politics and the arts. Court-ordered school desegregation began in Dallas in 1960. Thirty years later, the NDHS student body was 65 percent Hispanic, 12 percent Asian, and thirty-two different countries of origin were represented. The state Legislature and U.S. Congress recognized NDHS as the first international school in the state and nation. (2008)

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