Longtime Conroe High supporters Buddy and Swanette Smith are seeking school memorabilia for a new on-campus museum.
The Conroe High History Museum is scheduled to open with the new school year as a years-long renovation project wraps up at the school.
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Buddy, a 1967 graduate of the school, and his wife, Swanette, a retired teacher from the school with 54 years on campus, are seeking Conroe High items from the public to add to the collection.
“The permanent, but evolving exhibit, is a part of the final phase of the school’s rebuild and the display will be in dedicated showcases along the main corridor inside the new northeast facing entrance,” Buddy said.
Highlights are letter jackets and sweaters that reflect the differences in style, color and fabric through the years. The display will also include an assortment of senior rings and yearbooks dating back to 1915. Other items include a variety of uniforms, newspapers, pictures and other items of significance.
They are hoping to grow the collection with help from the public and former students.
Conroe ISD dates back to 1892. Conroe students of high-school age first attended J.O.H. Bennette School in the early 1900s, then David Crockett High School built in 1926 and finally the current Conroe High School on Texas 105 that opened in 1964.
The current artifacts amassed started with Swanette’s employment as a student teacher starting in 1972.
“The honest truth is as a young teacher, you own nothing, except your car and apartment. As we’d have things at school, if they gave out little trinkets like glasses or candleholders, I’d always get one,” Swanette said.
She became known as the holder of Conroe High’s memories on campus and people began to give her memorabilia which she has held onto with the hopes of one day having a museum.
“As it snowballed into getting really unique things, like sweaters from the 1930s, we thought this really needs to be displayed,” she said.
A decade ago and with the Conroe High renovation on the horizon, Swanette approached then school superintendent Don Stockton and the school board about a permanent museum and they agreed.
In addition to being gifted items, she has reached out through the 7,500-member strong Conroe alumni Facebook page and searched thrift shops and Ebay for Conroe High items.
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They are still seeking vintage Conroe High uniforms, letter jackets, awards, senior rings, photos and film, yearbooks, sporting equipment and other miscellaneous CHS tidbits.
Those with items to donate can contact Swanette through Facebook, by texting 512-964-2924 or by email at swanette@hotmail.com.
“It is hoped that visitors and returning alums will catch a glimpse of a faded moment and relive it, if only for a few seconds, and smile,” Buddy said. “A smile from a gaze back to a pleasant time of their youth when they were living their part, their page, of the story that is Conroe High.”