Mexican-American Presbyterian congregations began to appear in Texas in the last decade of the nineteenth century. As Texas's population increased following the Mexican Revolution, the Presbyterian Church assessed the need for educational opportunities for immigrants. In 1910, the Texas-Mexican Presbytery and the Western Presbytery presented a plan to establish a Mexican Industrial School for boys. The plan was approved, and in 1911 Henrietta King offered to donate 640 acres for a school. The following year, classes opened at the Texas-Mexican Industrial Institution with 49 students, including six girls. Its mission was to promote spiritual growth while training minds and hands for leadership in the community through academic and trade skills. The school's success led to interest in establishing a school for Mexican-American girls. After funding was secured, the school, affectionately known as Pres.-Mex., opened in October 1924 in Taft, Texas, with a curriculum similar to the boys' school. In 1955, action was taken to merge the two schools to establish the Presbyterian Pan American School. By the fall of 1957, the first phase of a new campus designed by famed architect O’Neil Ford was completed. From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, the school experienced increased growth in enrollment and geographic reach, with over 400 students from a variety of U.S. states as well as Guatemala, Mexico, Congo, Cuba, and Colombia. Over the years, through successes and hardships, the Presbyterian Pan American School developed from a small facility into an international educational environment with students from the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.