33 replies to this topic

[Buck]

I sure wish the Chapel Hill project had been built in a matching colonial style.

I love having the shops and restaurants, but the design is boring.

[Doug]

OLD PHOTO REFERENCED BEFORE, BUT FITS HERE.
http://www.texasfree...d_maybe1958.jpg

[John T Roberts]

That is a really nice old photo of the freeway and Arlington Heights.

[normanfd]

What I think is interesting about the picture is I see no evidence of the pedestrian bridge spanning the West Freeway between Ashland and Hulen that had the same design. I never realized it wasn't built at the same time as the other overpasses.

[John T Roberts]

Norman, it is there. Look very carefully at the picture and you can see two arches above the Hulen bridge. Also, the pedestrian bridge is at the high point along the freeway. If you look at the picture, you can see that the bridge just beyond Hulen is also at the high point.

[Thurman52]

The appear to be building a metal field house on the Hulen / Donnelly side of the football field. Not the most attractive thing, and it's tall.

Anyone know if they plan on covering it, bricks etc?

[cbellomy]

I wonder how many times the building has been added onto.

I think I can answer most of that:

1936: Main building, includes cafeteria, gym, library, auditorium and band hall (now the ROTC room).

~1950: East wing, includes new band hall (now choir room).

~1952: West wing, includes shops at basement level.

1980 (exact date, I was a student then): South wing, includes new library and band hall. This addition was lamented as it disrupted the view of the main building from the south -- the detail of the southern face is considerably more intricate than that of the north. Also, the new addition reduced the patio area from being truly open-air, with a grassy commons leading to the athletic fields, to a dour paved-over courtyard.

~1990: New addition appended onto the southeast corner of existing campus. Allegedly, funding for this expansion came from the 80 feet of the front lawn the school had to surrender for the widening of I-30.

So: four expansions to the main building. This does not include things like the "new" gymnasium, additional tennis courts, fieldhouse expansions, etc.

Lost and lamented:

- The amphitheater where the west parking lot now sits
- The gazebo on the south edge of campus on the middle field (I think there are batting cages there now)
- "The wall," torn down for the construction of the 1980 addition
- Ornamental globes on top of the facades of the auditorium and gymnasium

At least the dome of the tower was restored to its original copper and a weathervane reinstalled (even if the dimensions of the new weathervane differ from the original).

[JulieM]

Awwwww great thread. That's my alma mater (1978). That picture is great and the many times I've tried to explain to my kids how narrow the West Freeway was, they've never gotten it.

It's a beauty. I remember coming back from Spring Break to find the amphitheatre gone. Now that was sad. I am shocked to read that the gazebo is gone, though we called it the Smoke Shack...lolol. The wall, nope never went there!

[austlar]

Is anybody on here old enough to remember the famous 1963 bonfire episode before the Heights/Paschal football game, which I believe was the Homcoming game for both schools. Heights was scheduled to have a big bonifre out at Benbrook Lake and a group of rowdy seniors from Paschal, members of the Paschal POSSE and also a frat-like group called Barons, made elaborate plans to ignite this bonfire and disrupt the Heights festivities. A botched attempt was made to set an old junker car on fire and drive it down a slope into the the wood that was being prepared for the bonfire. Big John Hall was driving and managed to roll his corpulent body out of the vehicle before it burst into flames Another former Paschal student, whose name I can't remember, was flying overhead in a small private plane while a passenger was tossing rolls of toilet paper out the window. Police and Fire departments responded, and all hell broke loose. It was big news locally and even made the morning news on the Today Show. That same morning a very angry Mr. Berry, the Paschal principal, chewed the Paschal student body out at a special assembly. The game went on as planned, but I seem to remember that Homecoming events were cancelled. Paschal won the game and the championship that year, which was also the same autumn that Kennedy was shot and killled in Dallas after spending his last night in FW. It was a very memborable senior year for many of us. This was before there was any Trinity Valley or Country Day. Rich and poor, White rich and poor at any rate, all attended the same public schools, and Heights kids were known as "tea-sippers" even then.

[seurto]

I wasn't in PHS yet at that time (class of '74), but knew people who were and heard the story many times. A good friend of ours was in the Heights class that year and I have an acquaintance who was in the PHS class that year, so I've heard the story from both perspectives. Apparently all the 60s classes were pretty rowdy (for both schools), but by the time it got to us 70s people, the PHS/AHHS rivalry had really mellowed out. Heights is a beautiful school and I had an occasion a few years ago to go to a play in their auditorium and it was also beautiful. As much of a Paschalite as I am, I don't think anyone has ever described PHS as beautiful.

[JulieM]

I don't think the rivalry was that mellow in the 70's. Remember the ex-county commissioner's son who drove the bulldozer through the AHHS fieldhouse? I'll never admit to driving down a row of Paschal students car with a can of blue paint in one hand and gold in the other...nope, I'll never admit that one.

[John T Roberts]

I did a little digging and I found more specific dates on the major building expansions. They opened in 1950, 1956, 1958, 1980, 1988, 1989, and 2004.

[cbellomy]

I did a little digging and I found more specific dates on the major building expansions. They opened in 1950, 1956, 1958, 1980, 1988, 1989, and 2004.

OK, so I got 1950 and 1980 correct.

Do you know what opened in '56 and '58? I'm pretty sure the west wing would have been '56, but I can't think of any other additions that could have come so soon after. FWIW, my dates were based on old memories from looking through old yearbooks in the AHHS library back when I was a student there.

[John T Roberts]

I pulled this information from the Historic Resources of the Fort Worth Independent School District. The book is available online through the City of Fort Worth's Web Site. It lists the years of the additions, but it only gives details on two, the 1950 east wing and the 1956 west wing. It does tell how many classrooms were added to each, so that might help you determine what was built two years later.

Here is a direct quote from that survey: "An eight-room, 2-story annex was completed in 1950. In the mid 1950s, another addition was constructed that included 12 classrooms and enlarged the cafeteria and library." The dates of the additions are listed next to the school name.

[cbellomy]

Here is a direct quote from that survey: "An eight-room, 2-story annex was completed in 1950. In the mid 1950s, another addition was constructed that included 12 classrooms and enlarged the cafeteria and library." The dates of the additions are listed next to the school name.

OK, that helps, some.

"Eight-room, 2-story annex" would definitely describe the east wing.

"Another addition... that included 12 classrooms" might describe the lower two floors of the west wing. Perhaps the third floor was added two years later. A strange way to expand but it seems to fit the facts at hand.

"Enlarged the cafeteria and library" confounds me a bit. The cafeteria of that school is completely underground and doesn't seem to have been expanded in any obvious way. I suppose it's possible that it was extended some to the south in the direction of the west wing classrooms. The library at the time was located in the second story of the main building, smack in the middle facing north. I would guess that they expanded it by knocking down an interior wall and converting a classroom to library space. My memory of the layout of that area when I was there fits this hypothesis, however vague it may be.

[John T Roberts]

In 2003, my firm did some building code studies for most of the major schools in the FWISD and Arlington Heights was one of them. From what I can remember, it appeared that the south 1/3 of the current cafeteria used to be the kitchen and the new kitchen was added to the west.

On the west wing issue, how about this theory? The entire west wing could have been completed on the exterior with the third floor "shelled out". (If you don't know, "shelled out" means the roof, windows, and walls are constructed, but no functions or finishes are put in the space.) Then in 1958, the interior of the third floor might have been completed when the district had the funds or the school actually had the need for the extra space.

[cbellomy]

John, you've jogged my memory about the cafeteria. I think your theory about the kitchen moving is exactly right. And, in confirming my thoughts on this, I googled up the satellite photo of the campus, which I think may answer the question about the west wing, too.

The kitchen area extends to the west of the cafeteria (western edge of the original building) with a black roof. The roof above the cafeteria is considerably higher than that of the kitchen -- the gym is above the cafeteria.

Now, note that a similar roof relationship exists along the western edge of the west wing. These are where the wood and metal shops, along with a few standard classrooms, exist... all at the same basement level as the cafeteria. The floors above fall strictly within the footprint of the lighter-colored roof. It's getting late and I'm a bit too tired to tie this together with your quoted material to formulate a coherent narrative describing exactly what was built when, but I would guess that the shops and cafeteria expansion probably happened at the same time.

[John T Roberts]

I also thought of that possibility.