Fire Escape Commission for Nine Schools
El Paso Texas

Description: Fire escape commission for nine schools
Other Names:
Address: El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Type: educational: schools
Original Client: El Paso Independent School District
Historic Inventory:
Date: 1915-1916
Condition: some possibly extant

Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors: Moore Iron and Wireworks
Dimensions and Orientation:
Budget/Cost: $2,700

Foundation: concrete footings
Wall Materials:
Roofing Materials:
Other Materials Used: iron
Remodeling and Additions:

Present Owner:
Location of Drawings: El Paso Public Library: (O-9) 5 ink on linen sheets, dated November 1, 1915, showing fire escapes for the nine schools listed in Remarks, below
Location of Documentary Photographs: none known to exist

Bibliography: El Paso Herald, August 26, 1916, Progress and Building Section, page 2 (names contractor, gives cost, and names of eight of the schools listed in Remarks, below)

Remarks: Commission No. 2351.

The fire escapes were for the [old] High School (later Morehead School), and for the Highland Park, Vilas, Alamo, Beall, Douglass, Sunset, and Franklin schools, as well as for Aoy School (the Trost designed fire escape for Aoy School was not mentioned in the article quoted above, and was possibly not erected). None of these fire escapes were for schools
Trost & Trost had designed, with the exception of Vilas .

The old High School (demolished) stood at Arizona Street between Campbell and Kansas Streets; it is illustrated in: Frank Mangan, El Paso in Pictures (El Paso: The Press, 1971), page 56. The Highland Park School (demolished) stood at Alabama Street and San Jose Avenue. The
Vilas School is at 220 Lawton Avenue. The Alamo School is at East Fourth Street and South Hills Street. The Beall School is at 320 South Piedras Street; a photograph of the exterior is in the school section of the picture files of the El Paso Public Library. The Douglass School
[Sometimes mispelled Douglas] stood at Fourth Street and South Kansas Street; it has been replaced with another building with the same name on another site. Pictures of the original building of the Douglass School, before a second store was added, can be found in: Cleofas Calleros, El Paso Then and Now (El Paso: American Printing Company, 1954, page 66; and in: Sam Hill Ray, A Picture History of the Pass to the North (El Paso: Commercial Printing Company, 1967), page 28. The Sunset School (demolished) stood at North El Paso Street and West Rio Grande Avenue. The Franklin School (demolished) stood at Leon Street and West Overland Avenue; it is illustrated in: Cleofas Calleros, El Paso Then and Now (El Paso: American Printing Company, 1954, page 68. The Aoy School is at Eighth Avenue and South Campbell Street.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990