{"nrhp_refnum":"01000396","name":"University Junior High School","other_names":["Laboratory Junior High School","University High School","Practice School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1925 San Jacinto Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Austin","county":"Travis County","state":"TX","lat":30.285938917000067,"lon":-97.73863782299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-04-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick school building with a partly exposed basement, built in 1933 on the southeast corner of the University of Texas campus at 1925 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin. It was designed in a Spanish Revival style by architect George Leighton Dahl.","why_significant":"The building was a joint project of the City of Austin and the University of Texas to serve as a laboratory school for the UT School of Education, which the dean called an innovation in laboratory schools. It also meets Austin's need for a junior high school and shows the Spanish Revival campus design of the early 1930s. The form says it retains a high degree of architectural and historic integrity.","narrative":"Built in 1933 on the southeast corner of the University of Texas campus in Austin, University Junior High School was a laboratory school where University education students could observe classes and practice teach. The City of Austin lacked money to build a school, and the University had funds but not the means to operate one, so the two cooperated on a five-year agreement. George Leighton Dahl designed the building, and J.J. Wattinger was the contractor. It has a concrete frame, buff-to-orange brick veneer, stucco panels, terra cotta ornament and red tile roofs, and its Spanish Revival design follows the look of other campus buildings from the period. A courtyard and cloister lie on the east side, and an auditorium, now the Utopia Theater, occupies the northwest corner. The school closed in 1967 and the interior was later remodeled for University uses. Today it holds the School of Social Work and a child care center, and the exterior has changed little since construction.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"George Leighton Dahl, architect; J.J. Wattinger, contractor","architectural_style":"Late 19th and early 20th century revivals: Spanish Revival, Mediterranean","criteria":[],"status_note":"Closed as a junior high school in 1967 and later reused by the University of Texas; it now houses the UT School of Social Work and the UT Child Care Center.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.573111-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/31/9737/40973731/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/01000396.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000396/31ea269016-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000396/31ea269016-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_junior_high_school_2012.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_junior_high_school_2012.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973731","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Junior_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60743962"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/travis-county/university-junior-high-school-01000396/"}