Crozier Technical High School — ca. 1946
by Paula Bosse
The Tech woodworking shop…
by Paula Bosse
It’s always seemed strange to me that Dallas had a technical high school where students were able to learn all sorts of various trades: auto mechanics, metal-working, industrial machine operation, commercial art, introductory science and engineering courses, and much more. Students — while still in high school — could develop skills and acquire practical knowledge in areas they wanted to pursue as careers; they could also discover (while still in high school) that what they thought they wanted to do as a career was absolutely NOT something they wanted to pursue. I imagine that many graduates were ready to step to into jobs immediately after graduation.
In 1929, Bryan High School (the old “Central High School”) became Dallas Technical High School. In Denman Kelley’s “Principal’s Message” in the 1929 yearbook, he noted that this new idea in education “offers a wonderful opportunity to build up a school for those pupils whose educational needs are not met in the traditional schools…. As the volume of students grows, as the offerings increase with increasing needs, this school must truly become ‘A Greater School for All Dallas.'”
Dallas Technical High School, 1929 yearbook
It offered four “general divisions of study” (each arranged in four-year courses): an industrial course, a commercial course, a home-economics course, and the regular literary course. Among the specialized classes offered were automotive repair, woodworking, architectural drawing, stenography, painting, and elementary business training. These courses at Dallas Tech were available to all high school students in the city, and many students jumped at the opportunity to transfer to the downtown campus. (In 1942 the school’s name was changed to N. R. Crozier Technical High School in honor of the late Dallas school superintendent.)
I’m still amazed by this — shouldn’t we still be doing this? I guess this is what magnet schools do, but is magnet-school participation among DISD students anywhere near as widespread as it once was when vocational classes were concentrated at the huge campus of Tech?
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Below are photos showing students in some of the classes available at Crozier Tech in the 1940s. (All photos are larger when clicked.)
Under the hood
At the forge
In the laboratory
Modeling finished products in sewing class
Noodling with radios?
In the machine shop
In the nursing course
Setting type in the printshop
Working a letterpress and linotype machines (!)
There were also studio and commercial art courses. (I have to add this one because I’m pretty sure I now have evidence that in a previous life I was in a Crozier Tech sculpture class in 1946 — my doppelganger is the blurry girl in the center of the photo, looking with suspicion at the camera.)
Lastly, a photo of the handsome photography teacher, Orbette A. Homer, who taught at Tech from 1937 until his retirement in 1962. He and his students were responsible for these photos, some of which appeared in the 1946 Crozier Tech yearbook, The Wolf Pack.
O. A. Homer, 1960
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Sources & Notes
All classroom photos are from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries, Southern Methodist University; these images (and more from this Crozier Tech collection) can be found here.
The photo of Orbette Anderson Homer (1901-1968) is from the 1960 Crozier Tech yearbook.
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Copyright © 2018 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Skyline HS still has many of the technical high school offerings. But it seems that the community colleges are the place to learn trades and practical skills as the high schools have transitioned to more college prep courses.
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This is a great Flashback! Thanks so much.
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Thank you, Joyce!
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But- But – The “Information Economy!”
Didn’t you get the memo? Manufacturing things is now icky and awful. Every single person in the USA is now required to be either a website designer or a craft brewer or a barista. (If you can grow a giant hipster beard, you must brew craft beer. If not, you can choose between website designer or barista.)
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I took 1 year of drafting at rusk jr hi and 3 years at crozier tech where i graduated in 1956. I made my living as a structurial steel detailer for 12 years after graduation. I always liked crozier tech because it seemed most students were from families who were on the same income level.
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[…] opportunities once offered to Dallas high school students in the 2018 Flashback Dallas post “Crozier Technical High School — ca. 1946.” Enjoy all the great photos (one of which shows a girl in a sculpture class who looks so much like […]
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Very good point. Imagine working on your own car! Repairing a radio! Looking through a microscope! Threading a needle! Turning a lathe! I didn’t know how lucky I was in Junior High Shop Class back in 1966 -1968. I’m worried where this present generation is headed.
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Paula! My father learned to be a mechanic at Crozier Tech. At 17 he joined the Navy during WWII and worked in the engine room of ships in the Pacific. That training made a big impact on the rest of his life. Thanks for this post and the amazing photos!
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I walked around the school recently, seeing the photos and reading your article adds even more richness and texture to the experience.
Any thoughts on what became of all the enrollment records once the school closed? I’m trying to locate information on a student who graduated there in 1950.
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Thank you! Try contacting the DISD Administration offices for info on Crozier Tech.
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Oh wow, thank you! I will!
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Lee Harvey Oswald took a typing class there at night..true
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That sucks. Wish he had become discouraged and left town.
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When? 1963? I thought Lee grew up in New Orleans and went to Dallas shortly before the assassination.
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Both of my parents went to school there & met there in 1948, I think that is my mother modeling that pic in the sewing class. I used to have the 48 wolfpack yearbook & wolfpack sweaters. I went to school there when it was a metro school in the mid 70’s.
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