Holding Institute

Holding Institute is a United Methodist-affiliated community center in Laredo, Texas, originally founded in 1882 as a kindergarten and primary school. For nearly a century thereafter, Holding was a state-accredited boys’ and girls’ boarding school. Having been ravaged by a flood in 1954, the boarding school relocated to north Laredo but closed some three decades later as a result of funding difficulties. It re-opened as a community center downtown in 1987.

Early years

The roots of Holding date to 1880, when Mrs. Jacob Norwood began to instruct several Mexican girls at her residence in Laredo, the county seat of Webb County in south Texas. The next year, women of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South set aside funds to establish the kindergarten and primary school. The Reverend Elias Robertson donated ten acres on the bank of the Rio Grande south of the United States Army installation of Fort McIntosh, and in 1882, the first building opened. Known then as "Laredo Seminary", the institution operated under the direction of missionaries Annie Williams and Rebecca Toland. In October 1883, Miss Nannie Emory Holding of Covington, Kentucky, south of Cincinnati, Ohio, began a 30-year tenure as superintendent and namesake of the institution.

Holding’s sister, Delia Holding, taught during the first few years in the primary school. In 1886, the original all girls’ school became coeducational with the admittance of ten boys living in barracks under a system of military discipline. Miss Holding landscaped the sand dunes in the river by planting flowers, shrubs, and trees. Under her tenure, the campus was extended to seven buildings on twenty-six acres.

The students came from both poor and well-to-do classes and spoke either English or Spanish. Some were orphans. In 1913, Miss Holding retired at the age of sixty-eight, and Dr. J.M. Skinner, originally from West Virginia, became superintendent. The name was changed to the current Holding Institute. New buildings were added, and the high school department gained state accreditation. The operation of the school was transferred from the Foreign Missionary Society to the women’s section of the Division of National Methodist Missions.

Later years

In 1930, Miss Carmen Blessing became superintendent. In addition to the Great Depression, Holding had been adversely impacted by floods in 1922 and 1932, which destroyed many of the school records. By this time, dozens of students had graduated, some of whom were children of Holding alumni. In 1937, Anton Deschner, a Holding teacher, was named superintendent. About a third of the students came from Mexico; others were from Texas, Japan, China, Cambodia, Bolivia, Cuba, Panama, and the Republic of the Congo.

By 1954, Holding’s enrollment peaked at 350. In perhaps Laredo’s most disastrous flood in June of that year, the institute was crumbled by waters that soared to a staggering 63 feet. The grand piano was moved to a safe location into Laredo, and many of the books were placed on the top floors of the buildings. However, nine Holding buildings lay in ruins, and three others were useless for the time being. The Holding bell, which became the symbol of the institution, an iron archway, and a few papers were all that remained of the 74-year-old institution.

Holding then moved to a new site off Santa Maria Avenue in north Laredo, the land having been purchased by Methodist donors in the anticipation that further flooding would require relocation. The kindergarten and elementary grades were dropped. When Superintendent Deschner relocated to Camden, South Carolina, the leadership passed to Victor Cruz-Aedo. Funding was procured in 1956-1957 for an auditorium-cafeteria and four classrooms. A boy’s dormitory and a large dining hall, and a kitchen were added in 1958-1959. Later additions included a physical education dressing room, a library, a laboratory, and faculty residences. In 1964, work began on a new girls’ dormitory with a capacity to house sixty-six.

Cruz-Acedo left the superintendency in 1964, and the Reverend Maurice C. Daily assumed the post in 1965. Improvements steadily followed. Deschner Memorial Tower was erected to hold the old Holding bell. In 1967, a gymnasium was added, and the boys’ dormitory was air-conditioned. By the early 1970s, the school had sixty-four girls and forty-five boys in the dormitories as well as eighty-three day students.The boarding school closed in 1983.

In 1987, the current community center opened at 1102 Santa Maria Avenue in downtown Laredo, where classes are offered in upholstery, cake decorating, and flower arrangement. Holding also enrolls students in day and evening classes in conversational Spanish and English as well as English as a Second Language.

Holding also offers training in computer skills and preparation for those taking the General Education Development high school equivalency diploma. Day classes are from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, and evening classes are available from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Students may enter classes at any time of the year, and usually take courses for six months. Scholarship aid is available through the Texas Workforce Center. Holding serves students on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Several thousand Holding alumni reside and work in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere.