The period from approximately 1950 to 1973 saw a discernible concentration of school openings and renamings using the “Mark Twain” designation. The pattern of adopting a shared literary figure as a namesake, during this period, suggests a coordinated policy initiative.
In the 1950s, a notable cluster of American public schools adopted the name “Mark Twain” in honor of the widely read 19th-century author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by that pen name. One early example of this trend was Mark Twain Elementary School in Houston, Texas, which opened on September 11, 1950 serving a newly developed neighborhood.
Similarly, educational planners on the East Coast also embraced the naming for new intermediate and middle schools; Mark Twain Intermediate School in Fairfax County, Virginia was officially named in May 1959 and opened for operation on September 6, 1960 as part of a broader reorganization that established intermediate schools for grades between elementary and high school.
During this period of increased suburban expansion and school construction, other communities followed suit with “Mark Twain” designations, reflecting the cultural cachet of Clemens as a symbol of American letters. For instance, a Mark Twain school building in Montana was reported to have opened in 1961 with a purpose-built facility and expanded classes in subsequent years, suggesting that the name was part of contemporaneous district growth. (mt.wcr7.org) Anecdotal records from district histories show that the 1950s and 1960s were years when multiple jurisdictions elected to designate new or reorganized facilities under the “Mark Twain” name.
During the assignment of Mark Twain named schools of this era, Jeffrey Epstein, born in 1953 and raised in Brooklyn, attended Mark Twain Junior High School in New York as part of his early education before high school. U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, who grew up in West Virginia, also attended a local institution known as Mark Twain High School in Raleigh County. The Raleigh County high school then closed in 1965.