Davis High School officially opened its doors in the fall of 1926. The initial opening of the school, however, did not go as smoothly as planned. By October, the business manager overseeing the construction of the school reported that "plumbing in the Cafeteria is leaking" and "Some toilets not working." Later that year wiring issues in the school's bell system arose. And in November, evidence of adolescent hijinks emerged when the company hired to paint the school agreed to "touch up spots to match paint in hallways of North Side High School," but refused to "paint the walls all over where spoiled by children." In many ways, these issues were typical for any school in the city and revealed that the lives of those who walked the halls of Davis High nearly 100 years ago were not that different from those who walk the halls of Northside today.[3]

In 1926, Davis High School was one of the newest and most modern high schools in the country and was a physical reminder in the heart of north Houston of the Northside community’s educational and working-class pride. As one community magazine noted, "Our civics center with its high school, junior high school, grammar schools, churches, library and playgrounds...collectively are an institution of which any community might well be proud and should inspire in the breast of every resident of North Side a keen feeling of appreciation and a determination that the citizenship will continue to prove itself worthy of its community." Alongside other community institutions like Holy Name Catholic Church and the North Side Branch Library, Davis High School would be an important fixture in the Northside community, linking present and future generations.[4]

Not only did Davis High students help set academic standards for HISD, which included producing a scientific newsletter, the Jefferson Davis Scientific Weekly, distributed to educational centers in states around the country, the students who went to Davis High in its first year also helped set the district standard for athletics. As a school in a predominately working class neighborhood, outside of academics, sports represented an important domain where the students of Davis could showcase talent that rivaled schools in the wealthier parts of the city. [7]

In many ways, Davis High athletics was ahead of its time, and in the late-1920s was one of only a few schools in the city to have a girls' basketball team. Despite being only one year old, under the leadership of Coach Stricker, the Davis girls' basketball team was extremely successful, and only schools like San Jacinto High posed any competition. And for boys' basketball, despite also being a new team, under the leadership of Coach Needham, the boys' team showed much potential, winning five out of eight games in its first year.[8]

Over the course of the next two years, Davis sports would come into its own. While in the fall 1927 football season the Houston Chronicle reported that "Jeff Davis Team Well Hampered by Lack of Experienced Players," the following school year the Panther football team would meet the challenge set by the school newspaper years earlier, going on to win the city championship. This athletic success would carry on into the 1930s. However, as the boom of the 1920s turned to economic bust in the 1930s, and with the catastrophe of the Great Depression looming, the Northside community and the students of the new Davis High would have to rally together to meet the challenge ahead.[9]

At Davis High, while life continued on almost as normal during the Depression years, the school paper hinted at the worries that lingered just below the surface, reporting that "Although our school is not dramatically threatened at the present time by the economic crisis, there is no definite proof that it is immune from further cuts in salary or shortening of terms." With Christmas around the corner, the Dispatch tried to raise hopes in the dark times, running one headline: "Modern Santa Claus Exists Despite This Economic Depression." However, the paper also reported that some Houstonians were experiencing truly tough times, with one child responding to Santa's question about where she lived, stating that she lived in "a weather torn tent on the Humble road."[13]

In the early years of the Depression, rather that provide much need assistance to the city's poor and working class, city officials echoed President Hoover's calls for limited government. Houston Mayor Walter Monteith proudly declared that "Houston did not provide any assistance for the unemployed” and that “the federal government should not assist local governments in meeting their relief obligations.” While some businesses, like local movie theater owner Will Horowitz, mobilized aid, collecting canned food and feeding nearly a thousand Houstonians per day with his "Tin Can Matinees" and "Grub Stake" events, it was largely left up to local churches and non-profit organizations to provide their community chest funds to make up for the lack of government action.[14]

Churches like the Northside community's Holy Name Catholic Church, which was one of twelve of Houston's Holy Name society churches, was a key source of relief in the Northside during the Depression. In 1930, at the Holy Name Catholic Church Christ King Celebration of over 20,000, the Chronicle reported that Bishop Christopher Byrne of Galveston called "upon Catholic men and women to rally to the support of the forthcoming campaign for the Community Chest 'in the name of Christ the King, who loved the poor.' 'Be as generous as your means permit.'" The funds raised by community churches like Holy Name were one of the few threads keeping many of Houston's working-class families from falling into abject poverty. [15]

In the context of the depression, some city leaders called for schools like Davis High to be seen not just as centers of education but also as a "civic center" that could be utilized as a resource for the entire community. And libraries, like the North Side Branch Library, located across the street from Davis High, were also important centers of activity for the Northside's poor and working class most impacted by the Depression. The library provided an opportunity for Northside residents to "secure some new knowledge that may be of service in earning a day's pay or meeting a reduced household budget." And for Northside youth, "Many a young person with the ambition for higher education, has been forced by the stress of financial conditions of their parents to forego this advantage, for the present..." and so "they turn to the library to supply their hunger for learning." Community churches, schools and libraries were the threads that stitched together the Northside community in the 1920s and would be the glue that held the community together through the dark days of the Depression. [16]

In 1933, the Davis High school paper rejoiced following the election of Franklin Roosevelt. With FDR's New Deal plan to restart the economy in full swing, the Dispatch reported, "During the last four years these United States have been very, very sick. But, thanks to Dr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this nation has survived a most dangerous crisis, and the patient, we learn, is at last entering upon the road to recovery." The Dispatch also noted local efforts to implement FDR's programs, reporting on the Houston Council of Parent-Teacher Association's city-wide call for students to write short compositions on "Now Is the Time to Buy," urging Houstonians to "put money in motion." By the mid-1930s, despite earlier opposition by city officials, millions in federal aid poured into the city providing government jobs for thousands of Houstonians who worked on projects ranging from the construction of downtown's city hall to the building of Lamar High School.[17]

Even with the challenges of the Depression, the students at Davis continued to thrive. While academics remained a top priority, students participated in a wide range of clubs and sports including archery, horseback riding and hockey. And in athletics, Davis continued to showcase its talent, winning the boys' basketball city championships in both 1933 and 1934.[18]

At the height of the Great Depression, Davis High remained a beacon of the Northside community's working-class pride. Despite the high levels of unemployment in this period, the students at Davis High retained their working-class identity, with the Dispatch reminding the student body of the community's industrial roots in the Southern Pacific Railroad, a railroad where hundreds in the community still worked and that had contributed to the growth of modern Houston. Interviewing a local pharmacist, the Dispatch reported, "The North Side has built up splendid schools and churches, and the society is as nice as that in any other part of the city. The people who helped built this part of the city should be very proud of the present day North Side."[19]

Davis alumni Valeri Waller was among those in the Northside who lived through the Depression years in Houston and graced the halls of Davis High in the final years of the 1930s. Reminiscing at her 50th class reunion, Ms. Waller remarked:

“TIMES WERE TOUGH…as we embarked on our three years at Jefferson Davis Senior High School in September, 1938. But we managed… AND WHEN WE WERE BROKE…we watched the softball games at Murell Field on Fulton; or played table tennis in the club house at Moody Park; gathered in one another’s home to play Monopoly or to roll back the rug and dance to that great 40’s music on the radio…”

As the decade turned and the Great Depression came to an end, war clouds gathered over Europe and Asia, and the students who entered Davis High in the 1940s would soon face a challenge even greater than that of the Depression, one that would be unparalleled in both American and world history.[20]