A Guide to the Main Avenue High School Alumni Association Records, 1921-1999

Historical Note

The Main Avenue High School Alumni Association was organized around 1979 to plan the 50th Anniversary reunions of the graduating classes of 1930-1932. Main Avenue High, originally San Antonio High School, was established in 1882 to accommodate the growing number of school-age children in San Antonio, Texas. The school was rebuilt and renamed Main Avenue High (to reflect its street name) in 1917. The only other secondary school in the city at that time was Brackenridge High. Main Avenue and Brackenridge formed an intense rivalry, which later turned into friendship when both schools' alumni associations cooperated on alumni events for students from the graduating classes of 1929-1932. The alumni association of Brackenridge High was called the Mid-Thirties Alumni Association, which sometimes worked with Main Avenue on alumni events. In 1932, Main Avenue High became Fox Technical High School, the city's first vocational school; the newly opened Thomas Jefferson High School offered an academic curriculum to former Main Avenue students.

Mary Carr-Paschal (Class of 1930) and Ben Shaver (Class of 1931) were the founders of the Main Avenue High School Alumni Association and Carr-Paschal served as one of the principal officers of the Association. She was the Association's Newsletter Editor and also Alumni Historian. Carr-Paschal was primarily responsible for establishing contact with alumni and orchestrating alumni events.

Scope and Content Note

The Main Avenue High School Alumni Association Records document the efforts of two alumni to reconnect with classmates from the graduating classes of 1930, 1931 and 1932. The collection includes information about the school alumni associations and people connected to the Main Avenue High School Alumni Association. Items include correspondence, news clippings, yearbooks, alumni catalogs, alumni lists and addresses, flyers, photographs, newsletters, newspapers, meeting minutes and memoranda, programs and invitations, sign-up and reservation forms, reports, song lyrics, cheers and original poems and essays.

Noteworthy items include Main Avenue High commencement programs from 1921, 1925, 1928 and 1930, yearbooks for Main Avenue and Brackenridge, two unique newspaper publications of Main Avenue's El Huisache, a panoramic reunion photograph by local photographer E.O. Goldbeck, and extensive obituary documentation. Main Avenue High School Alumni Association correspondence includes notes and letters from alumni detailing the lives and deaths of former students, information which was later summarized in the alumni newsletters. There are also biographical materials, notes and certificates that belonged to Mary Carr Paschal.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Researchers must wear gloves provided by the Archives when reviewing photographic materials. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on these materials.

Usage Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Main Avenue High School Alumni Association Records must be obtained from the UTSA Archives or the appropriate holder of copyright.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Main Avenue High School Alumni Association, 1921-1999, MS 145, Archives and Special Collections, University of Texas at San Antonio Library.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Mary Carr-Paschal and Ben Shaver, 2003 and 2004.

Processing Information

Processed by Ancelyn Krivak and Heather Kuhn, Interns, July 2006.

Detailed Description of the Collection