The school does not occupy a prominent place in the original town plan, yet Lemmon, the Dallas architect who designed Port Arthur's public schools from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, in no way stinted on civic presence. An astounding Dutch gable, centered on 7th Avenue and checkerboarded with cast-stone tiles, gives the school building monumental authority and pays tribute to the Dutch financiers who backed Arthur E. Stilwell's railroad, port, and town-founding projects. Alumni include artist Robert Rauschenberg (class of 1943).