Lamar University

Lamar University originated as South Park Junior College. On March 23, 1923, the South Park Independent School District in Beaumont instructed Superintendent L. R. Pietzch to develop plans for "a Junior college of the first class." South Park Junior College opened on September 17, 1923, with an enrollment of 125 students and a faculty of fourteen. Classes were held on the third floor of the new South Park High School. Pietzch served as president of the college, and Carl W. Bingman was named dean of the college and principal of the high school.

In 1932 the name of the institution was changed to Lamar College, in honor of Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas. A building program begun in 1933 gave the college almost entirely separate facilities. The Lamar Union Junior College District was established in 1940, and Lamar College was separated from the South Park district. Bonds for construction of a new campus were approved, and in June 1942 classes were held on the present campus on the Port Arthur highway, three blocks east of South Park High School. John E. Gray was named president of the college.