Raised on an artificial terrace leveled off the south face of Mount Franklin, the school consists of a pair of wings in an L-shaped plan. A Corinthian columned portico of six colossal columns marks the interior angle where the wings converge. The portico overlooks a horseshoe-shaped amphitheater on the downhill slope and commands views across the Rio Grande valley. Friday night football in Texas has never had a more noble setting. The school is three stories high, faced with tawny brick and matching terra-cotta, and set on a raised basement. A two-story order of Tuscan pilasters with deeply recessed windows and spandrels amplifies the Baroque effect. Above a full entablature, a tall attic has its own cornice and balustrade. The result is robust without being ponderous. Inside, classrooms are zoned in the wings, and a wedge-shaped, two-story auditorium is set in the corner of the ell behind the portico, along with a library and the school’s administrative offices. The gymnasium, with its heavy precast concrete walls and steel roof truss, was added in the 1970s.
You are here
El Paso High School
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.