Houston Independent School District - Administration Building

Administration Building

The current administration building, the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, is located in northwest Houston. The administration moved into the offices in spring 2006. It is named after Hattie Mae White, the first African American HISD board member and the first African-American public official in the State of Texas elected since the Reconstruction.

The current Sam Houston High School building in the Northside opened in 1955. The previous Sam Houston High School building in Downtown Houston became the administrative headquarters of HISD. By the early 1970s HISD moved its headquarters out of the building, which was demolished. As of 2011 an HISD-owned parking lot occupies the former school lot; a state historical marker is located at the lot. In meetings it had been proposed as a new location for the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Houston ISD's administration building from July 1970 to March 2006 was the 201,150-square-foot (18,687 m2) Hattie Mae White Administration Building, located at 3830 Richmond Avenue. The facility was labeled the "Taj Mahal" due to the counter-clockwise circular layout and the split-level floor pattern. The design made it difficult for wheelchair-bound individuals to navigate the building. The complex cost U.S.$6 million. The building had tropical indoor atriums, causing critics to criticize the spending priorities of the district. When the district considered cutting a popular kindergarten program for financial reasons, taxpayers voted many board members out of office. The district sold the former complex for $38 million to a company which demolished the site and developed a mixed-use commercial property; demolition began on September 14, 2006. Demolition crews destroyed the Will Rogers Elementary School, an adjacent elementary school located at 3101 Weslayan that closed in spring 2006. The former HISD administration building appears in the film The Thief Who Came to Dinner.

The land of the former administration building now includes a Costco among other businesses.