"A school is the heart of the community, and the community is the soul of the school.”
Oscar Carter and D.D. Cooley   Founders of the Houston Heights

It was not long before Hamilton students began to excel in many ways—the football team won the city championship in 1926, and teachers expanded the academic interests of students with speakers like the famous Sergeant York and the grandson of Comanche chief, Quanah Parker.

In the hard times, the school reached out to its neighbors: during the Depression, for instance, Hamilton opened a thrift shop to help support Heights-area families.  In the wake of World War II, the school helped the neighborhood return to normalcy by winning several city championships, in both swimming and baseball. 

The school continued to thrive throughout the 1960s and 1970s, when it won numerous citywide baseball and football championships and graduated many students destined for illustrious careers, like newsman Dan Rather, race car driver A.J. Foyt, and famed criminal attorney Racehorse Haynes.  Also during the 1970s, Hamilton successfully integrated its student body, adding to the rich diversity of the school still present today.                 

During the 1980s, Hamilton intensified its commitment to academic excellence by adding a Vanguard Program for gifted and talented students.  Heights-area children who might have abandoned Hamilton for academically accelerated programs at other public and private schools now had an alternative right at the foot of Heights Boulevard, within walking distance of their own homes.

As the decade drew to a close, Hamilton became known for its responsive approach to social issues as well.  For instance, the school welcomed the Kick Drugs Out of America Program, designed by martial arts master and actor Chuck Norris.  The program, promoted in numerous middle schools throughout Texas, provides a healthy alternative to drug use in the form of martial arts training; it also provides an appealing athletic opportunity to students not interested in conventional sports activities offered in school.

With its hardworking, ambitious and committed faculty and administrators, Hamilton Middle School was honored in 1999 when designated by The Annenberg Foundation as one of its Lamplighter Schools.

For almost a century, Hamilton Middle School has graduated students who are not only well-educated, but well-rounded, eager and willing to take their place in the Heights and the greater Houston community.