LHS History

Longview High School today is the home of over 2,400 students who attend classes in a beautiful three-story structure, located on Tomlinson Parkway north of downtown Longview.

It was designed by architects Robert Allen & Associates of Longview and Perkins & Will of Chicago. The coliseum and ninth grade addition were designed by Rick Malloy of Longview.

Completed in 1976, it is a school with teachers and students who are representative of a richly diverse community. Its history goes back to the late 1880s and spans years of growth in Longview, consolidation with smaller schools including Judson Grove, and total integration in 1970.

The former Judson High School is now Judson Middle School, one of three middle schools in the Longview Independent School District. The combining of the early schools through the years laid the foundation for one great high school, home of the Lobos.

Beginnings..........

A Longview Male and Female Institute was established and began classes on September 7, 1874, with tuition ranging from $2.00 to $3.00 per month. Other than a few private schools such as this, Longview had no education institutions until 1880, when a frame structure was erected at the intersection of Green and Tyler streets.

All other schools in this period were supported partly by tuition and partly by state funds for all grades except high school for which pupils had to pay. By 1885, Longview had outgrown this building and a large frame facility was erected on the southeast corner of Green and College streets.

The Longview Independent School District was created by a special act of the 31st Texas Legislature in March 1909. On September 2, 1927, the Longview Independent School District purchased more property in the vicinity of Green and College Streets. This property was for the erection of a brick building to house Longview High School, replacing the frame structure built in 1885. In 1930, when oil was discovered in East Texas, school enrollment increased from 1,970 to 4,400 in a two-year period.

No oil had been discovered with the Longview Independent School District, and a financial crisis was intensified. Located on 6.3 acres on the corner of College and Green streets, the new high school was constructed of multicolored brick, wood frame windows, and a red clay-tile roof. It was used for years as a high school, then converted to a junior high school when a new high school was built on East Whaley Street in 1932.

The Green Street school was, for many years, a center of community activity, having been used as a polling place and a temporary place of worship for various churches. The auditorium was used for civic music concerts, "Lion's Jollies," band concerts, and civic productions in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1932, a three-story concrete and brick high school building for three grades was erected on Whaley Street.

The urgency to relieve overcrowded conditions at the South Green site necessitated round-the-clock construction at times. The structure was designed by noted architect Mark Lemmon and built by R. F. Ball. It featured art deco entrances with terra cotta and fluted pilasters. The classrooms had hardwood floors. Redbud trees were planted near the street. The annexation of the Rollins Common School District in 1936 and the Elderville Common School district in 1961 further added to the district's enrollment.

By 1976, following consolidation with Judson High School and the integration of Womack High School, enrollment growth dictated the move of the high school to the present location on Tomlinson Parkway. In 1988, after failed attempts by former students to preserve "old Longview High School," the building was demolished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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