The first step toward organizing a junior high school in Marshall was made in 1928. Crowding in the elementary schools, which included grades one through seven, made it necessary to provide for more space. On September 20, 1929, all seventh grade students were sent to the West End School, then known as Stephen F. Austin. It occupied the old high school built in 1911 on the southeast corner of the present junior high campus.
Since Stephen F. Austin did not use all of the classrooms, the School Board voted to assign seventh graders to the second floor, while reserving the first floor for primary grades and the third floor for upper elementary students. The new Junior High School contained seven teachers and 195 students.
This plan remained in effect until 1939, when continued growth led to demolition of the Junior High School/Stephen F. Austin building to make way for a new senior high school. In January 1940, grades 10-12 moved into the new building facing College Street, and grades 7-9 occupied the old building facing West Houston.
A steady increase in enrollment led to construction of the west wing in 1954. It housed administrative offices, fine arts classrooms and the industrial arts department. The junior high enrollment had grown to 900 students in 1955.
From 1929 to 1964 the junior high remained with the high school. A new Marshall Junior High School was built in 1964 on East Border Street (now East Travis) to house the seventh and eighth grade students.
Following enactment of a desegregation plan in the summer of 1970, the two grades in the junior high school were divided. Pemberton Junior High School (later to be called Price T. Young Junior High School) became the home of the seventh grade. Marshall Junior High School continued to house the eighth grade.
This division of grades continued until the school year of 1981-82, when seventh and eighth grade students were reunited and moved, as the Marshall Junior High School, to the present location at Houston and College. This building, vacated by the high school in May of 1980, had undergone extensive renovation from the spring of 1980 to the fall of 1981 in preparation to house all seventh and eighth grade students.
Additional renovation occurred in 1984. The industrial arts section of the west wing was divided into administrative offices and the Truitt Ingram Board Room, which became the Literacy Center in 1990.
In 1999-00 MJHS became MISD’s first school designated “Recognized” by Texas Education Agency for performance on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. MJHS repeated the achievement in 2000-01 and 2001-02. In 2001-02 the campus was MISD’S first to be listed on the Just For The Kids/Texas Business and Education Coalition Honor Roll, a recognition repeated twice more in the next three years.
