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The first public school for African American children of this area was Goose Creek School for Coloreds. Founded in 1921 as a grade school, it served the children of the Baytown area, as well as those in La Porte, Cedar Bayou, and McNair. Classes were also held in Mt. Rose Baptist Church. The school’s first principal, Anna B. Edwards, was paid $90 per month. A frame school building constructed at the northwest corner of Carver St. and Oak St. (now Martin Luther King Dr.) Opened in the fall of 1924; a brick addition in 1927 expanded it to the ninth grade. The school’s name was changed to honor scientist, educator, inventor and botanist George Washington Carver by June 1940, and it was accredited as a four-year high school in 1941. In 1948, a larger, modern campus was opened four blocks east at Carver St. and Lee Dr., and the old building became an elementary school. Carver High was consistently ranked as one of the top segregated schools in the state, and students excelled in both academics and athletics. Carver won nine state band competitions and eight state sports championships in the Prairie View Interscholastic League. There were just five principals in 46 years: Ernest A. Archia, William M. Davis, Clyde J. Messiah, Edward F. Green and George Perkins. The high school closed after the 1966-1967 school year as a result of desegregation. Carver Elementary School was then located here from 1967 until 1995, when a former oil storage pit was discovered on the property. The buildings were demolished in 2002 and a new Carver Elementary was dedicated at a nearby site. Carver School, which originally laid the educational foundation for area black children, continues to educate the Baytown community. |
