Highland Park High School — 1939

by Paula Bosse

Highland Park High School

by Paula Bosse

Great photo of the neighborhood around Highland Park High School (its second location — I had no idea), from the 1939 HPHS yearbook. I would have thought the Park Cities would have been built up more by then.

The description, from the back of the 1970s-era postcard this image appeared on:

In 1937, Highland Park High School moved to 4220 Emerson from its original home on Normandy. This aerial view — taken from a double-page spread in the 1939 Highlander — shows the entire physical plant of [the] High School. R. C. Dunlap was the President of the Highland Park District Board of Education that year.

Bounded by Emerson, Douglas, Lovers Lane and Westchester — covering five full city blocks — Highland Park High School looks, today, much as it did in 1939. Only the neighborhood has changed as it has continued to develop. Significant additions have been made to the educational facilities in order to keep teaching techniques right up to date.

Today, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders from both Park Cities attend Highland Park High School — still recognized as one of the best educational institutions in the country.

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Sources & Notes

Photo from the 1939 HPHS Highlander yearbook; later issued as a postcard as part of the Park Cities Bank “Heritage Series” in the 1970s. Thanks to the Lone Star Library Annex Facebook group for use of the image.

A very, VERY large scan of this image can be viewed here.

Here’s an awkwardly cropped photo of the first HPHS, from 1928 (click for larger image):

Another from the same series of postcards, issued in the 1970s. The description on the back:

Sunny days almost always found upperclassmen chatting on the front steps at High School. These photographs were taken from a 1928 copy of The Highlander — the Highland Park High School annual.

H. E. Gable was the superintendent that year. Ben Wiseman replaced E. S. Lawler as principal at the end of the school year.

The front steps at 3520 Normandy are still a gathering spot, but today’s students attend Highland Park Middle School — grades six, seven and eight. Senior High School moved to a new building at 4220 Emerson in 1937. Additions and remodeling have kept both of these educational facilities right up to the minute in technology and equipment.

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