J.H. Moore Learning Center

jh mooreIn 1902, J.H. Moore secured permission from the school board to organize an elementary school in the northwest part of Marshall. Classes were held on the lower floor of the Odd Fellows Hall on West Grande Avenue. Members of the Odd Fellows Lodge raised the rent from $6 per month to $8 per month, and the School Board was unable to pay the difference. J.H. Moore paid the extra two dollars per month the last five months of that school year to allow the school to continue to operate.

During this time, the school had raised $105 to spend on new seats for the new school, but when they moved in the new building on Jan. 5, 1903, the money was applied toward hiring a third teacher. The new brick building, was named Park School.

In 1910, largely through the efforts of Mr. Moore, water fountains were installed at Park School. These were the first school water fountains installed in Marshall. In 1919, the first playground was erected through his leadership and efforts. Reporters from The Dallas Morning News came to Marshall and took pictures of the new playground and published them in the Dallas newspaper.

Park School began to outgrow the building which forced Mr. Moore to secure free, added space in the old Masonic Hall across the street from the school. During the early days of the school, he added curriculum that included clay modeling, needlework, public school music and physical education.

In 1921, $100 was raised to put toward the installation of sanitary facilities. The School Board installed the restrooms without using that money, and instead returned it to be used elsewhere at the school.

Mr. Moore remained as principal at Park School until 1925, when he was transferred to serve as principal at Hillside School. During the administration of Superintendent V.H. Hackney, an expansion program for Marshall Public Schools began. As a result, a new site for a school as purchased at the corner of Norwood and Cooper streets in northwest Marshall.

A new school, built at a cost of $215,298, was named J.H. Moore Elementary in recognition and in honor of Mr. Moore’s humanitarian acts of leadership during his 48 years as an educator in Marshall. J.H. Moore Elementary opened on Sept. 12, 1954, and served the students of northwest Marshall until it closed at the end of the 2017-2018 school year due to the opening of the new Price T. Young Elementary School.

Along with his leadership in education, Prof. Moore served Bethesda Baptist Church as Sunday School Superintendent from 1902-1952. He served the Masonic Lodge as Worshipful Master during that same time, and he built a departmental Sunday School at Bethesda Baptist Church where he also served as Director of Teacher Department of the National Sunday School Congress for 25 years.
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