In 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 Grand Avenue.
A brick building, known as Park Elementary, opened January 5, 1903. Mr. Moore remained as principal until 1925, when he was transferred to Hillside School, and was succeeded by L .E. Thompson. Under Mr. Thompson, a new auditorium, two additional classrooms and four more rooms were added to the main building.
Upon Mr. Thompson’s retirement in 1950, P. E. Moon was transferred from Pemberton High School to serve as principal of Park. He remained until it closed in 1954, at which time students were transferred to a new campus.
During the administration of Superintendent V. H. Hackney, an expansion program for Marshall Public Schools began. As a result, in 1953 a new site was purchased at Norwood and Cooper Streets, and a school building was erected. The name
J. H. Moore Elementary was selected because of Mr. Moore’s humanitarian acts during 48 years as an educator. The new school opened September 12, 1954.
During the 1976-77 school year, J. H. Moore was remodeled. The entire school was air conditioned, carpeted and painted. In 1980, five East Texas Baptist College students built a playground using barrels, tires and wood.
In 1982, the school opened a quarter-mile-long nature trail on adjacent wooded land loaned to MISD. During the same year, the environmental science committee and PTA gave the campus a facelift.
Construction of eight new classrooms began in April 1985, and continued through the summer. When classes began on September 3, teachers in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade, a speech therapist and a diagnostician moved into the addition. Grounds were landscaped with flower beds and landscaping timbers, and the teachers' parking lot was paved.
A gymnasium separate from the main building opened in November 1992. A new office and library complex opened at the beginning of school in the fall of 1995.
With MISD’s reorganization in 1981, Moore School began serving students in grades K–4. In 1989, the kindergarten class was moved to Washington Early Childhood Center, but by 1994, Moore once again enrolled kindergarten students.
In 2002 Moore was designated “Recognized” by Texas Education Agency for performance on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. The achievement was repeated in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
