In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when regulations required separate facilities for African Americans despite the small number of African American residents in Wise and surrounding counties, African American families in Decatur, most of whom lived east of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway tracks, established East Side Elementary School in 1882 as the only school for African American students in Wise County. Its original building was a one-room frame structure near the residence of Mrs. Missouri Brown, and it also initially served as a church. The school had a pot-bellied stove, and boys gathered wood for it from a nearby creek. A water well was abandoned in the 1930s after oil contamination was discovered. The school often received discarded furnishings and textbooks from Decatur's white schools, and students who finished eighth grade had to travel to Fort Worth's I.M. Terrell High School or Denton's Fred Moore High School to continue their education. In 1954, a two-classroom brick building replaced the school, and the old frame building was used as a band hall at Decatur High School, later served as a barn, and was then moved back to its historic neighborhood. East Side Elementary School operated until segregation ended in 1965 and all students attended the same schools.