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First and Ash Streets

Until the end of segregation in 1965, Frisco’s African-American students attended the Hamilton School named after preacher Jack Hamilton. The school’s date of origin is uncertain, but it is believed that the building was erected about 1925. The wooden building had two rooms split down the middle by a breezeway. The building served as a church on Sundays. The building had no running water and was heated by a wood-burning stove, outhouses for restrooms, and used books from the all white school. Only students in grades one through eight attended Hamilton School. When they reached ninth grade they were bused to black-only high schools in either Plano or McKinney. There were two teachers: Portia Taylor serving grades one through four and John L. Bruce headmaster and teacher for grades five through eight. There was an average of about eight students per grade. Taylor Elementary is named for former teacher Portia Taylor who lived in Frisco during the week while teaching and returned to Dallas on the weekends to be with her family. The Frisco ISD School Board voted to integrate Frisco schools on August 31, 1964 and was fully integrated by September 1, 1965.