More Images of Old Sugar Land

Click the image below to view images of old Sugar Land.

 

Audience at announcement of Kempner Scholarship for M. R. Wood High School graduates in 1957.

More People of Old Sugar Land

Click the image to view the album of photos.

 

T. C. Rozelle, Jr. in 1916 at home on Sartartia Plantation.

More Selections from the 1959 M. R. Wood Panther annual

Here is another selection from the 1959 Panther yearbook for M. R. Wood School in present-day Mayfield Park. This was the first annual the school produced.

Click the image below to view pages showing the school principal, Charles L. Jingles, and faculty.
 

1959 M. R. Wood School annual.

More Images of Old Sugar Land

 

Liquid sugar loading station on east side of the Imperial refinery, early 1960s.

Aerial photo of Mayfield Park looking west/northwest, sometime between 1953 & 1955.  The new M. R. Wood classroom building is the long structure with a light-colored roof near the center of the photo.

 

W. T. Eldridge, Sr.'s home on Lakeview Drive, probably just after its completion in 1928.

 

These next two aerial photos show the location of the dredging operation described in the entry above on Sugarland Industries.  The first photo was taken in the 1920s.  I think the dredger was operating in the area around Coburn's Dam, roughly where Brooks Lake joins Oyster Creek.  You can see Oyster Creek is clogged with vegetation.  It was even worse on the stretch of Oyster Creek between The Hill and Mayfield Park.
    

     

The next photo was taken in the early 1960s.  It's difficult to tell, but Oyster Creek and Brooks Lake have been dredged to a greater depth and width.  In fact, repeated dredging projects were performed through the decades to remove silt from Oyster Creek.  I've posted several photos dealing with the various projects.
      

More Images of Old Sugar Land

I'm not certain of the date for these photos, but I think they come from sometime between 1962 and 1965.  The first 3 show the construction of an addition to the old M. R. Wood School on the east side of the gym.

 

A view looking southwest.

Another view looking southwest.

A view looking northwest.

Another view looking northwest.

A view looking northward up Ulrich St. from the intersection with old Imperial Blvd.

More Images of Old Sugar Land

 

Visco, now Nalco, in October 1957.

M. R. Wood elementary class room in 1962.

M. R. Wood music room in 1962.

M. R. Wood class room in 1962.

A 1920s photo of the curious cement block in Cleveland Lake near the Wood Street bridge.  Everyone wonders what it is, but nobody really knows.

Billy Beal and Norris Smallwood

Last week I posted the following image from The Imperial Crown published in May 1970.  It welcomed Billy Beal and Norris Smallwood as new employees at Imperial Sugar Company.

Last week I found this picture which was taken on March 11, 1959.  It shows elementary school children from M. R. Wood after they had toured the refinery.  Well, guess who was in that group.

 

Eva Jane Barlow, Teacher at M. R. Wood School

I found this photo of Eva Jane Barlow and her elementary class at M. R. Wood School in the Imperial Crown issued in July 1960.  This means she began teaching in 1912.  I'm not sure is she spent her entire career in Sugar Land.  Maybe someone can enlighten us on that.  Maybe someone can identify the children in the picture.

 

M. R. Wood School in 1985

This 1985 photo shows the old M. R. Wood School, located in Mayfield Park.  I think it was taken just before the the old school buildings were demolished and the new school built on the same location.

  

1960 Graduating Class of M. R. Wood High School

I don't have many photos of M. R. Wood graduating classes.  Here's one of the Class of 1960 that was published in The Fort Bend Mirror.  (I'm sorry it's not a better scan.)

 

An Essay By Ruby E. Johnson, December 6, 1924

The Texas Commercial News, published in Sugar Land on December 6, 1924, included the following short essay written by Ruby E. Johnson, a 7th or 8th grade student at M. R. Wood School in Mayfield Park.  (It would be named M. R. Wood School a few years later.)

 

The 1st Circle of Sugar Land Elementary

I saw a question on Facebook recently about the number of school buildings in the 1st circle of Sugar Land Elementary's campus on Lakeview Drive.  Some low-level photos make it seem there  were just 8 classrooms in the semi-circle.  Actually, there were 10 rooms from the inception of the school in 1918.

Here's a quote from Bob Armstrong's book, Sugar Land, Texas and The Imperial Sugar Company (1991):

In 1916, it was evident that larger and better school facilities were needed to replace the enlarged combination school and church building on Wood Street.  Kempner and Eldridge instructed their chief engineer, M. R. Wood, to go to California and inspect a school plant which was reported to be one of the finest in the nation at that time and to draw up plans for a similar school plant in Sugar Land.

Wood copied the layout. Construction was started in early 1916 and completed in 1918.  Located on the north bank of Cleveland Lake, the plant consisted of eleven individual buildings arranged in a semi-circle with a large and airy auditorium at the center. All buildings were finished in white stucco on the outside with a flat roof and large windows. The buildings were connected by paved and covered walkways and each contained a classroom and a restroom. In cold weather they were heated from a central system; the large windows provided cooling breezes in warm weather. The auditorium seated 500 people, adequate for civic meetings and gatherings.  It had a raised stage, complete with curtains and backdrops and a moving picture screen, a projector room at the back and a piano. Occasionally, the community was treated to silent movies twice a week at minimum charge.

The 1st photo below is an aerial from a video Judy Harrington Diamond (SLHS '59) gave me.  It shows very clearly all 10 classroom cottages around the school auditorium.  You see Kempner Stadium at the upper right.  There's a fence around the field and a stands on the east side.  The field has no track.  You'll also notice the 1953 additions to the school campus don't appear.  All this suggests the photo dates from 1947 to 1952.  (Also note the baseball/softball field adjacent to the west side of Kempner Stadium.)

This next photo is a postcard made from an aerial photo.  It comes from T. C. Rozelle's archive.  He annotated the photo as taken in 1924.  Note there's no football field although there's a baseball field with stands.  They don't appear in the aerial above.  I think they were moved to the west-end park off Imperial Boulevard sometime in the 1930s.  Also note the 2nd semi-circle of the Sugar Land School has not been built.  It was constructed in 1932.

 

 

I also noticed some discussion of M. R. Wood School on Facebook. Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson wrote a short history, which I posted here.  As she indicates, the M. R. Wood campus was formed in 1927 when three colored schools were consolidated in Mayfield Park.  The school was named after M. R. Wood sometime during his leadership of the Sugar Land school district.  I'll guess it was probably in 1927 when the new campus was constructed.

Here are some relevant aerial photos I have.  This 1st one shows the school house before the consolidation in 1927.  The school house in Mayfield Park (known as The Quarters in those days) was a community center, which also served as a church and civic meeting room.

The next photo was taken sometime between 1950 and 1952.  It shows the campus before new construction in 1953. 

SLHS Campus Chatter, February 8th, 1929

Here are a few articles from the SL ISD's student newspaper, Campus Chatter, dated February 8th, 1929.  I've finally got an answer to a nagging question.  Sugar Land High School didn't have an indoor basketball court.  They must have practiced on the tennis courts behind the first circle of class rooms.  Apparently, they played few (if any) of their games in Sugar Land.

I have the impression that Superintendent Caryn Foreman wasn't big on sports.  She didn't want to provide any school funds for football or basketball.  The players, their families & local supporters apparently collected funds for these programs.

I noticed in a later article they played Richmond High in their new gym.  I presume it was on the school grounds where Jane Long Elementary now stands.  However, even another article says they played a game in the old court house, which is pretty wild.  I'll have to check when they demolished that building.  It stood where the old Richmond swimming pool was located.  It's the same block where the water tower now stands.

 

College Scholarships, 1957

Leon Anhaiser let me scan his high school scrapbook, which his mother kept for him.  Many thanks to him & Bettye for letting me scan it.  Leon & Donnie Sampson won the Kempner Scholarships that year, but Sonny Astorga, Willie Hernandez & Shirley Brodecky also won scholarships.  They were celebrated in Imperial Sugar Company's monthly employee bulletin, The Crown.  Here are pictures of their award ceremonies.  (Note: Google has made a change that I do not like.  After clicking on the images below, you'll need to click the URL in the lower left corner of the refreshed images to magnify them.)

Ella Jenkins Patterson, Imperial Scholar in 1965

Ella Jenkins Patterson was valedictorian of the final class of M. R. Wood High School. She was also the last recipient of the Imperial Sugar Company Scholarship Award from the school.

The first article below appeared in the June, 1965 issue of The Crown (Imperial's monthly employee newspaper).

The second & third articles appeared in The Fort Bend Mirror (I think) & The Houston Post.

Notice the reports on previous winners. M. R. Wood ceased operation as an elementary-high school in the fall of 1965 when former students began attending Dulles High, Sugar Land Junior High, Sugar Land Elementary & Missouri City Elementary. M. R. Wood became a special-needs school a few years later. Believe it or not, there we just 5 schools in Fort Bend ISD at that time.

M. R. Wood Special Needs Classes, '68 & '71

I want to thank James Boatwright & his wife Pat Helmcamp Boatwright for letting me scan these pictures. Many of you know that Mrs. Boatwright (mother of James) taught 2nd grade at Sugar Land Elementary for many years. She also taught at M. R. Wood when it became a school for special needs children.

This is a picture of her class in 1968.



This shows her 1971 class.

An Aerial of Mayfield Park in the 1920s

This aerial view shows the north side of Sugar Land in the 1920s. You see The Hill to the left and Mayfield Park in the middle & right. It was known as the Quarters in those days.

I think that's M. R. Wood campus standing in the middle of the horse shoe created by Oyster Creek.

Imperial Boulevard is visible in the upper right-hand corner.

By the way, I think Bob Laperouse took this picture. A pilot took him up in an open-cockpit plane to take the picture - & several others. (Maybe a member of the Laperouse family can set me straight on this.)

A History of M. R. Wood School

Ella Jenkins Patterson sent me this brief history of M. R. Wood School. Ella was a member of the last class to graduate from M. R. Wood in 1965. Later that fall Fort Bend ISD schools integrated & all high school students in the district went to Dulles.

The author of this history is Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson. I don't have an exact date, but I think she must have written it in the 1980s or sometime after. My thanks go to Ella for sending this to me.

Mayfield Park Photos & Memorabilia

My thanks to Ella Jenkins Patterson (M.R. Wood '65) for providing me with the following 5 pictures of Mayfield Park history. Any pictures relating to M. R. Wood School are very hard to find. I know the Sugar Land Heritage Society would like to have copies for their collection. I'll be happy to arrange contacts if anyone has pictures or memorabilia to donate.

1. Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Choir: Top row: Deacon H. L. Smith, Deacon Leon Weams, Brother Chester Harris, Brother Connie Upson, Brother Heywood Davis. Bottom row: Sister Lillian Matthews, Sister Essie Smith, Sister Doris Scott (pianist), Sister Ella B. Jenkins, Rev. Eddie Thomas (Pastor) , Sister Mae Esther Thomas (Pastor's wife) Sister L. W. Williams.



2. Rev. Eddie Thomas pastor's anniversary - 1980's. Note: September 2010 was Pastor Thomas' 49th year at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. People listed: Rev. C. G. Wilkins (speaker), Sister Ella B. Jenkins, Rev. Eddie Thomas (pastor), Sister Mae Esther Thomas (pastor's wife), Rev. Jewell Jenkins Sr. and Brenda Robinson (pianist). Note: Rev. & Mrs. Jewell Jenkins escorted the pastor and wife into the Church for the anniversary ceremony.



3. Class listing 1965 - the last class to graduate from the old M. R. Wood High School.



4. Two pages - May 1965 graduation program - noting Attorney Barbara Jordan as the Speaker.



5. M. R. Wood School in the 1940's, maybe. The lady on the top row behind the boys with the bats in their hands was Miss Annie Scott. She was the principal at that time. Note: M. R. Wood was grades 1 through 12 even in 1965.