Celebrating Austin High's 125 Years (published 2007) 125 Years (pp 1-24) | Page 11

The Lakeside Campus
How We Came to Be Where We Are Today
By the 1960s, new high schools were opening in the north and south of the city. McCallum, Travis, and a new segregated Anderson
High School had opened in 1953. Lanier opened in 1961, Johnston in 1961, Reagan in 1965, and Crockett in 1967. During this
period of expansion, the old Austin High campus was air-conditioned and other renovations were made to try to help the old building
last a little longer.
In 1970, however, the School Board of the Austin Independent School District began a search for an appropriate replacement for
Austin High. Frankly, the high school site near downtown just wasn't large enough for the high school, and parking along busy city
streets had become very difficult.
After an effort to "just close the old school" was defeated, several sites for the new school were considered.
Far out Lake Austin
Boulevard was a section of the Breckenridge tract, across from Lions Municipal Golf Course. Another site, the old Texas Confeder-
ate Home at 1600 West 6 t,\ was also considered. The preferred location was a site at 1700 West First Street in the old Zilker tract.
School Board President Roy Butler commented, "We can't just keep remodeling (the Rio Grande Campus). It is just not up to the
standards of a new building. To make Austin High School comparable with the other schools we're building, we'll have to move to
another site." Bya vote of5-1 on November 24,1970, the School Board selected the Town Lake site as their first choice.
The Town Lake site had been part of Andrew 1. Zilker's 1927 and 1933 gifts to the city for parkland, later named Zilker Park. The
land north of the river - now considered for the school site - had never been developed and had been vacant since 1942 when a brick
plant located there was closed. Since the site was dedicated parkland, the Sierra Club and other interests sued the school district to
prevent the use of the site for a school. On April 26, 1973, the Texas Supreme Court allowed the school district to use the land
Construction began soon after. Preparations had been under way for more than a year before the lawsuit was settled. Gray Con-
struction of Austin was the general contractor and the estimated cost of construction was $5,533,430. Adding the cost of site prepa-
ration and relocation of utilities, the total cost was $7,500,000.
Legal fees of $500,000 added to the cost. Fonner Lamar Junior
High Principal Kermit Heimann was selected as the first Lakeside principal, but he resigned on August I, 1975, to become Superin-
tendent at Pflugerville. Heimann's replacement at Lamar - Jacquelyn McGee - was surprised when she was told to "not unpack her
books," and was selected to take the Austin High job.
First day of school at the Lakeside Campus was August 24, 1975.
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