That tiny replica of the San Jacinto Monument near San Jacinto and Holman streets is surrounded these days by the landscaping of Houston Community College’s San Jacinto Memorial Green, the green-space-turned-parking-lot-turned-back-to-green-space next to the adjacent building that once housed San Jacinto High School. A reader sends an early-evening out-the-window shot of the park, which is scheduled to formally open on Saturday.

That shot faces Holman St., with Caroline St. visible to the northeast and lined up with the green space’s lit walkway; most of the lawn seen to the left of that path was paved parking lotbetween the 1980s and 2014. The photo is taken from the former San Jac high school structure itself (now employed as part of HCC’s Central Campus, and referred to as the San Jacinto Memorial Building by the time of its 2012 addition to the National Register of Historic Places):

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Since its 1914 construction, Flori Meeks reports, the building has spread a few wings (one designed by Joseph Finger), played part-time host to a budding University of Houston (then called Houston Junior College), and turned into HSPVA for most of the 1970s (after San Jac’s last classes wrapped up).

The San Jacinto monument monument was bought by the still-active San Jacinto High School Alumni Association in 1995; the building itself got a down-to-the-concrete renovation that’s about done now as well (though the structure reopened for classes in 2012). The San Jacinto alumni group and HCC will now be fundraising for scholarships by selling engraved pavers for placement in the park, as well as naming rights for the park’s walkways and trees.

• Dec. 3 grand opening set for San Jacinto Memorial Green [Houston Chronicle]
• New life for San Jacinto High [Houston Chronicle, 2013]
• HCC San Jacinto Renovation & Addition [BRW Architects]

Photos: Swamplot inbox (top), BRW Architects (bottom)