 From the Dallas Morning News Archives, July 2, 1923 James B. Bonham Elementary School, an historic East Dallas School, located at 2617 N. Henderson Avenue, was originally the Vickery Place School. The building was constructed in 1923 and cost approximately $121,000 to build. The architect was well known architect C.D. Hill. In December of 1939, the school board decided to change the name to James B. Bonham School. We believe this was done to avoid confusion with the town of Vickery, which was annexed into DISD soon afterwards. It is the opinion of some architects that the building is historically important to the City of Dallas and that any future renovation work be done in a manner which would preserve the original design characteristics. In 1923-24, there were 885 teachers in DISD and 36,000 students. The current location of the school is actually the third physical location of the Vickery Place School. In 1923-24, the new Vickery Place School was built at 2617 N. Henderson (VP school was previously located at the corner of McMillan & Miller and before that at 5330 Goodwin Avenue). The name of the school changed in 1939 to James B. Bonham School. (from DISD School Board Minutes, Vol. 26, pg. 197, Dec. 16, 1939: “Board voted to change the name to James B. Bonham”). The original locations of the Vickery Place School are still standing. The architect of the Bonham Elementary school building is C.D.Hill, one of Dallas' most prominent early architects. C.D. Hill also was the architect for the Alexander Mansion (Dallas Women's Forum) on Ross, several houses in Munger Place and on Swiss, and he designed the Municipal Building (the new UNT law school) downtown, among others. James Butler Bonham died at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution. Read more in the Wikipedia article. On January 26th, 2012, the DISD Board of Trustees voted to close James B Bonham Elementary School. |
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