When did you last wet your whistle at one of these? These hulks of concrete and iron may look like part of the fortifications of the Maginot Line during World War II, but they are school yard drinking fountains.
This one is at the old Stephen F. Austin Elementary School (1892) on Lipscomb Street, now corporate headquarters of Williamson-Dickie.
This one is in the yard of a school built in 1909 by the Arlington Heights Independent School District just off Camp Bowie Boulevard, now part of the Boulevard Heights Transition Center.
If these fountains could withstand fifth-graders, they could withstand Nazis.
My dad was also the principal at at Stephen F. Austin. He had only been at Hogg for a short while when they paid him extra to be the principal at both schools at the same time. They are within a few blocks of each other and he had a teaching assistant principal at both schools who was in charge when Dad was at the other schools. The original SFA’s principal’s office was on the 3rd floor at the north end of the orginial building. It was used as a bookroom when Dad was there. A cafeteria was added to the far south end of the building and Dad’s office was directly above it.
I have noticed that now and then one person would be principal of two schools at the same time. That school is one of our oldest and handsomest.
They also had those at Meadowbrook Elementary and Tandy Elementary. I went to Meadowbrook and my Mother taught at Tandy. Bet that the Meadowbrook one is still there. As I remember there were several around the campus as it was both Elementary and Jr high till 1954.
The oldest school that I have found to have them is the Austin school on Lipscomb, 1892. But who knows when they were installed. D. McRae Elementary, 1917, also had them. They evoke a lot of memories in those of us who drank from them.
When did you last wet your whistle at one of these?
I last wet my whistle at the Stephen F. Austin water fountain in 1966 or ’67.
As a point of interest, Ginger Rogers attended Stephen F. Austin in Fort Worth.
You attended that grand old school! I did not even know it existed until I got on my bike. So glad that Williamson-Dickie has preserved it. We had those same fountains at D. McRae (1917), which did not survive.