Contact

View Full List of National Register: Wyoming Listings

View Full List of National Register: Wyoming Listings

West Side School

 
 

Read All About It:

The Mexican or Spanish school was built in Worland, the county seat of Washakie County. It currently resides in a mixed residential and industrial neighborhood at the intersection of Big Horn Ave and 3rd St at 100 S. 3rd St. According to both the Public Works Administration (PWA) and WPA application, the school was designed and built for the following: “School facilities are inadequate. Grade school is needed to relieve contestation and to segregate white and Mexican children.” The Mexican or Spanish School served as a segregated elementary school for the city’s Hispanic children from 1936-1956. Children of Mexican descent attended Worland city’s schools in an integrated setting until the Great Depression when anti-Mexican sentiment drove the building of a segregated school in 1936. Known most commonly as the Mexican or Spanish School it was also known as the West Side School. The Mexican school in Worland was in operation until 1956, following the immediate aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954/55) Supreme Court decisions and Wyoming’s repeal of its permissive educational segregation law in 1955.  The school was in use for Mexican descent children until 1956, when it was temporarily used to house middle school students, served as the Worland school administration building, a bank, Wyoming Highway Patrol, and is currently used as an office building.

The Mexican School is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the areas of Education and Ethnic Heritage: Hispanic due to it being one of the only—if not the only —public schools built in Wyoming for the sole purpose of segregating Hispanic children and illuminating how geographically expansive the segregation of Hispanic children was in public schools. 

 

 

West-Side-School
 

Date Added to Register:
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
 
Location:
Worland
 
County:
Washakie County
 
Smithsonian Number: 
48WA2496

 

Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office Menu

HomeHome

About UsAbout Us

Events & TrainingEvents & Training

ProgramsPrograms

Online ToolsOnline Tools

HelpHelp

Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office

The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office documents, preserves, and promotes Wyoming’s heritage with our preservation partners.

 

Get a Compliance Letter...

Help with Funding...

Get a Poster or purchase Archaeology wear...

How do I list a property on the NRHP?...

How do I find forms?...

Contact Us...

 

What's New

Visit Us On Facebook