Celebrating Austin High's 125 Years (published 2007) 125 Years (pp 1-24) | Page 15

Memorial Stone and Bricks
In 1919, Austin High students wanted to create a memorial to the students who died in World War 1. As the campaign continued,
the student leaders also got the idea that the stone would be a memorial to peace as well. Led by teacher Miss Florence Ralston
Brooke, a student-driven fund drive was begun.
The effort was successful. In the spring of 1920, a cast-bronze plate was purchased with the names of eighteen Austin High stu-
dents whose death was directly attributed to World War 1. And the student leaders also secured a one-ton boulder of "Town Moun-
tain" pink granite from Marble Falls, Texas. This is the same building stone as that used on the exterior of the State Capitol.
In a ceremony for Memorial Day, 1920, the students dedicated the Memorial Stone and
Plate on the Old Red Campus, 9th and Trinity Street. Flowers were laid on the pentagonal
platform, speeches were given in memory of the fallen soldiers, and students and ministers
offered prayers for "peace". An annual program began that year.
After the 1925 Memorial Day program, students agreed that Memorial Stone should be
moved to the new high school campus at 12th and Rio Grande. Guarded by an escort of
twelve Eagle Scouts in uniform, the stone was placed on a horse-drawn wagon. Solemnly,
slowly, the procession moved form 9th to 11th Street on Trinity, then west on 11th Street,
curving around the south lawn of the Capitol to iz" Street, then west on 12th to Rio
Grande. Formal ceremonies noting the arrival of the stone were held on Memorial Day,
1926.
Ceremonies of one kind or another were held at the Stone until the 1960s. The ceremonies were discontinued because the school
was badly divided on the question of the Vietnam War. Some students objected to the stone - and the ceremonies - as symbolic of
America's warlike history.
When the Austin High Lakeside campus was opened, the Memorial Stone was one of the "ties to the past" which the students voted
to carry to the new location from the Rio Grande Campus. In 1975, the stone had been at Austin High fifty-five years.
New ceremonies were held at the Memorial Stone beginning in 1977. The Social Studies Department sponsored the event as a de-
partment activity as part of an observance of Stephen F. Austin's Birthday, November 3. The annual observances were opened to
all classes. We remembered the original meaning of the stone, the debt we have to military veterans, the heritage of Stephen F.
Austin, the man, and provided a venue to honor veteran Austin High teachers. During the 1980 program, the stone was rededicated
to the memory of all Austin High Students who had died defending their country. The last regular program at the Memorial Stone
was in 1994.
The construction of the Performing Arts Center in 1996 caused landscape planners to move the stone to a memorial plaza about 100 feet
east of the earlier location at the schools' entrance. Re-
cently the Parent-Teacher-Student Association has had an
active donation program for "bricks" to remember present
and past teachers, students, and patrons. The Memorial
Plaza is certainly a fitting main entrance to the building,
surrounded by the Jackie McGee Theater, the Band Hall,
the Preas Theatre and the imposing East Entrance Arcade.
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