Site of Terrell High School

Site of Terrell High School. . , Churches and private schools provided early educational training for African American students in Denison until 1886, when Anderson Public High School opened at 530 W. Bond Street. To meet the need for improved and centralized facilities, district trustees opened a new school at this site in 1927. William R. Wims served as the first principal for Terrell School, named in honor of Augustus H. Terrell (d. 1929), noted educator, respected civic leader and first principal of Anderson High., The original school building served all grades and included four classrooms and a small auditorium. Prominent principals Wims, Mason S. Frazier and Evans Tyree Hardeman directed the school's expansion in its formative years to serve a growing community and provide increased educational opportunities. Early teachers received low salaries, but in 1946 Sammye Taylor Savage, elementary teacher at Terrell, successfully sued for pay equalization throughout the district., Terrell students set high standards in academics, the arts and athletics. The school produced many accomplished civic, business and professional leaders, as well as performing artists and athletes. The winning traditions of Terrell's maroon and white Dragons, including state football championships in the 1940s, were a source of community pride and identity., With the implementation of integration came the close of Terrell High School, and the last class graduated in May 1967. Later used for middle and elementary school classes, the campus was razed in 2000, the year a new Terrell Elementary School opened nearby (200 yds. SE). Today, the history of the high school, in existence for forty years, continues to live on in the Terrell name and in the memories of its alumni.