North Dallas High School, Year One — 1922-1923
by Paula Bosse
NDHS, in the beginning… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
North Dallas High School — one of Dallas’ oldest still-operating high schools — opened in 1922 on N. Haskell, between McKinney and Cole. Here are a few photos from the very first NDHS yearbook.
The faculty:
The auditorium:
The library:
The lunch room:
The swimming pool (!):
Another photo of the pool, showing a girls’ class:
The 20th Century Literary Society club:
The football team:
The “three-minute daily drill”:
The physical training department’s interpretation of “The Spirit of North Dallas”:
The 1923 Viking cover:
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Sources & Notes
All photos from the 1923 Viking, the yearbook of North Dallas High School.
Photos and ads from early-’60s NDHS yearbooks can be seen in previous Flashback Dallas posts here and here.
All images are larger when clicked.
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
First picture I’ve seen of the swimming pool at NDHS. It was later covered over.
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It must have been pretty unusual to have had a pool back then. I’ve added a second photo of the pool, showing girls practicing their diving stances.
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From what I’ve heard from school folks, it was very controversial since Forest Avenue and Oak Cliff high schools didn’t have one. That was what led to its being covered over and used for another purpose.
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I looked through newspaper archives and found that from its earliest days it was opened during the summer to the public (for a fee…). A DMN article in 1937 announced that the pool — “[which] has been closed for a number of years” — was to be reopened as a community pool for the summer. The article stated that NDHS was the only school in Dallas with a pool and was in the school’s basement. From then on it seemed to be opened during the summers through the ’40s and into the ’50s. A 1972 article on the school’s 50th anniversary quoted a man who taught there from 1922 to 1934 as saying this: “It was one of the first high schools in Texas to have a swimming pool, and the board of education closed it because of lack of interest. It’s still there today — under the floor of the band room.”
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Great research, thanks.
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A very informative article Paula! Being an ND alum I can add that the swimming pool was covered over after the 1956 school year and the renovated area was then used as the band practice hall. Today the old swimming pool/band hall area is a computer lab. The only thing remaining in the pool photos is the concrete bleacher seating area. When the pool area was converted for band hall use the old bleacher area was walled floor to ceiling and used for band instrument storage. It is still a storage area today.
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Very interesting. Thanks, Danny!
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Are these public domain photos since they’re archival photos an not taken by a person still living?
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I would assume so, but I don’t know for sure.
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Do you have any information on Jack Walker, who played at North Dallas in the early 1930s?
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I REMEMBER THE POOL IT WAS DRAINED IN 1952
TO MAKE FOOTBALL FIELD SOFTER FOR THE
52 BULLDOGS.WICH I BELIVE IS THE BEST TEAM
NORTH DALLAS HAS EVER HAD IN 98 YEARS
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Negative, 2002^* is the best team North Dallas has ever had -With Coach David Beaty. #WeWillWin
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Four family members went there and I taught there for eight years.
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