The New Deal Comes to Grapevine: History of the School the WPA Built

In a past blog we looked at back-to-work initiatives generated during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Most of the funding of Grapevine’s New Deal projects became available through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). These included a canning factory, a sewing room, a new grammar school building, a renovated high school, a new homemaking education building, and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Office. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funds for a water project. The canning factory story is covered in the August 2024 edition of the Grapevine Historical Society newsletter On The Vine (”Yes, We Canned!”), so be sure to check it out. Today’s blog will discuss the history of the Grapevine school the WPA helped to build.

Grapevine had just incorporated in 1907. In 1908 the town first voted a bond issue of $12,000 and a fifteen-cent maintenance tax for a two-story red brick school on what is now Austin St. By late March 1908 it was nearly completed (Fig. 1). It had two stairways and a hall in the middle, and more steps leading to the south and west entrances. A large iron school bell was installed on top of the building. The upper story had two big classrooms, two smaller classrooms, and an auditorium that also served as the study hall. The Grapevine Sun called it “a beauty” and “an ornament to the town and surrounding community.”

In 1912 – just four years later – the newspaper opined that a new high school building would be needed soon because the current edifice was too small and had not grown with the town. The Sun repeatedly reminded the community of the need for a bigger school building: “Let’s have another wing on the school building – more room is badly needed (June 21, 1913)”; “ . . . another school building and more teachers (May 22, 1915)”; and “The heating system is inadequate and the crowded condition . . . is not commendable for a school of Grapevine’s size . . . (January 22, 1916).” By March 1916 the idea of a second school building finally began to take hold. A movement began to issue $10,000 worth of bonds to improve the current school, something the Sun believed should have been done long before.

At a mass meeting on March 4 it was agreed that an annex or new building should begin at once. A committee of four was appointed to get estimates and report the results at the Odd Fellows Hall on March 18. By March 25, the petition for the bond issue had over one hundred signatures. The Sun constantly beat a drum for approval of the bonds throughout April. It proudly stated, “That new school building will be a peach, vote for it.” The election was ordered for April 29, 1916. It also chastised those who opposed the measure, firmly replying on April 1 that the bond issue “is going to carry anyway and [complainers] will not gain anything by getting ‘raw’ about it.”

The school bond election was held at the Wood-Wall Building on April 29 and passed 96-46. There was no organized effort to defeat it but some voters had no problem voicing their dissent. Besides overcrowding, another reason for needing a new school was a school law change that added about one hundred high school students from nearby rural schools, as well as the already-lowered scholastic age limit. Overcrowding had become a genuine problem.

The bonds were approved when printed in mid-August 1916. The new school would have two modern laboratories, classrooms, and a spacious auditorium, and a steam plant would be installed to heat both the old and new buildings. The high school was given first-class status by the State Department of Education and was to be ready by November 1, 1916. By November 18 the Sun reported that the new school had been almost completed but even in early December it was not ready for classes. It’s not known when construction was finished; there is no mention of the school after December 9, 1916 in the Sun and none of its issues for 1917 are known to exist. There was also no mention of it in either Dallas or Fort Worth newspapers. The 1916 high school was built to accommodate seventy-five students and served Grapevine students until it was replaced by a larger school in 1952 (Fig. 2).

About fifteen years passed before Grapevine had to face the likelihood of building another new school. A mass meeting was held in the high school auditorium on March 10, 1931 to take a vote on whether or not those present would support a new school. John S. Estill, school board president, explained that for the school to receive the highest credits, no teacher could teach more than forty students in the grade school and no more than thirty in the high school. The two rooms in the grade school were badly overcrowded. A vote was taken after some discussion; fifty-eight citizens voted yes and nineteen said no. Based on these results, Mr. Estill said that a bond election would be held in the near future.

At the school district meeting on April 21, 1931 John Estill motioned, and Ed Simmons seconded, that an attorney draw up the “papers as needed for the petition to call a bond election for $45,000 for the purpose of building a High School Building.” Those in favor saw the new school as an investment in the future. Others believed it was too much to ask people to vote for higher taxes during an economic depression.

The election was held on May 16. Both parties had taken out sizeable ads in the Grapevine Sun trying to persuade voters to their side. Earl Yates, Sr., a member of the school board and dry goods store owner, lost a few customers because of his support for the bonds. He had put up the architect’s drawing of the proposed school in his store window. A resident customer saw the plans and declared he wouldn’t set foot in that store again. When it was over, the bond issue failed, 224 opposed to 135 in favor. Mayor B. R. Wall said it was “a warm election” and created “some hard feeling. Hope it blows over.” The disappointed District Superintendent W. M. Campbell urged residents to “forget our little differences” and move forward. The desire for a new high school, however, did not go away.

Six years later, in his diary entry of September 27, 1937, Mayor Wall wrote that he met with the Texas State Auditor concerning an account for a new school for Grapevine. He wrote in his Sun newspaper column a few days later that he had gone to Austin “to do something for Grapevine and its various institutions . . . hoping for substantial results” but didn’t elaborate; after the prickly 1931 bond defeat he may not have wanted to jeopardize his efforts to get funding for a new school. FDR’s New Deal Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration) had been in place for over three years and had been providing funds to supplement local back-to-work projects across the country, and the mayor, as a committed civic-minded official, believed Grapevine should take advantage of it. Perhaps he thought the idea of shared costs with the federal government would make the bond issue more palatable to residents.

It wasn’t until November 7, 1938 that the mayor said he was “[q]uite busy in re Grapevine School bond,” probably mapping out a strategy for getting a new school building. On November 22 he traveled to Austin for a conference regarding the school bonds. He met with the school board on December 13 and signed a contract with Steck Printing in Austin, who would print the bonds. The date for the bond election was set for December 27, 1938. The preliminary application for that construction was forwarded from the WPA office in Fort Worth to the state WPA office in San Antonio on December 1, 1938. The job would cost $101,244, employ 147 men, and would take eight months to complete.

On the designated day Grapevine citizens voted 198 to nine at Mayor Wall’s office in favor of the $25,000 bond issue. This meant a fifteen percent increase in taxable values in 1939 because the school district already reached the one-dollar maximum rate. Corbin Crews, secretary of the school district board of trustees, said the present grammar school would be razed and that remnants of the old building would be used in constructing the new school. The new building would be raised in units so classes wouldn’t be interrupted until spring 1940. Architect Earl T. Glasgow of Fort Worth was responsible for drawing building plans.

Plans for school construction were sent to Washington from San Antonio for final action on January 18, 1939. On June 6, 1939 the mayor received a telegram from Congressman Fritz Lanham saying that FDR had approved an allocation of $68,427 for the school project. Architect Glasgow said that work would start in early July. The program included renovations on the present high school building and a home economics cottage that would be designed as a model home. The grade school was to have eight new classrooms and a gymnasium. District Superintendent William F. Cannon said that bids for bonds would open on June 19. Offers were turned over to the State Board of Education, which had the option of accepting or wavering claim on the bonds.

On December 29 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the following cost-sharing between the WPA and the Grapevine Independent School District:

• Demolish present school building at Grapevine, erect home economics building and landscape grounds: WPA $13,735; GISD $7,046; workers: 127
• Construct main school building at Grapevine using new and salvaged materials: WPA, $48,089; GISD $26,275; workers: 119

Sixty-three men went to work on this project on January 4, 1940 (Figs. 3-5). In the previous two weeks they staked off and dug foundations for building the homemaking cottage. While construction was underway, the Methodist Church hosted grades 1-3; the Baptist Church hosted grades 4-7; and the Church of Christ hosted grade 6. Children and teachers did their best to respect church property. Snow and rough weather during January delayed construction work for a short time.

Mayor Wall fielded many questions about the school project. He explained to Grapevine citizens that the City didn’t handle WPA rolls and had nothing to do with the hiring of workers and how long they were to be employed. He specifically said that Grapevine was one of the very few cities in that part of the state that was trying to sponsor any kind of government projects. The civic-minded mayor also emphasized that local sponsors of these projects, such as himself, were required to devote a substantial part of their time as public service and in no event would they get any compensation whatsoever.

By March 21 all concrete footings and piers have been poured. A football field east of the school was being filled in and leveled off. A rock wall a foot wide and two and one-half feet high, made of native stone, was completed on the north side of the present high school building. The colonial-design homemaking building (referred to previously as a cottage) on the east side was nearly complete (Fig. 7).

The cornerstone for the new school purchased by the Grapevine Masonic Lodge was laid by the Grand Lodge of Texas on April 25, 1940. Grand Master Leo Hart officiated at the event and the public was invited. Students and teachers expressed their thanks and appreciation for the support that allowed this project to proceed. On April 29 Mrs. Neil Donohue, Area Supervisor of Homemaking, visited the homemaking building and gave her approval. The Parent-Teacher Association toured on May 2, and high school students visited on May 3. An Open House was held on May 13 for the public.

On July 13 Mayor Wall forwarded the school bonds by registered mail to the Attorney General for approval and signature by the Comptroller, which would then be turned over to American National Bank, Austin for collection. On the 26^th the mayor sent the order to the Comptroller to forward the bonds to First National Bank, Dallas, fully insured. On July 31 the mayor closed the school bond issue and deposited $20,125.00 with First National Bank, Dallas for the Grapevine school board. On August 20 he commented on the landscaping, writing that “W.P.A. evergreens are arbitrary about School Bldg. 4.”

By January 4, 1941, Grapevine schoolchildren had moved into part of the new school building.

The formal opening ceremony for this WPA project was held on April 3, 1941 in the new building and all rooms were available for inspection. Events began with a dinner in the banquet room of the homemaking building for a few honored guests and invited friends. GISD Superintendent Cannon was the master of ceremonies. WPA District Manager H. W. Holtzer represented the WPA and Dr. L. A. Wood, State Superintendent of Schools, gave the principal address. Other state officials as well as Grapevine government and school officials were present, and the forty-piece WPA Band from Fort Worth provided the music. Other out-of-town visitors came from Roanoke, Keller, Denton, Fort Worth, Dallas, Springtown, Arlington, Rhome, Azle, and surrounding communities.

The school the WPA built continued to educate Grapevine students from elementary through high school until the next school bond issue in August 1951, when growth demanded the construction of an even larger high school and four elementary classrooms.