But financial considerations and the desire of some administrators to remain committed to the community influenced the college to stay. Black residents started moving into Poly in the late 1960s after the construction of Interstate 35 forced a black migration from Rock Island Bottom, a former neighborhood tucked between I-35 and the Trinity River's West Fork just south of Texas 121. Families began purchasing homes in Polytechnic Heights, Forest Hill and Rolling Hills, said Jeffery. Anglos moved out. The McClellans are the third owners of a white, two-bedroom frame house with lime green trim that was built in 1922 on Millet Avenue.
Potted plants line the concrete front patio.
Wind chimes and a sun-catcher swing from the porch covering. Their driveway is covered by pebbles. A row of collard greens sprout from a garden plot that has yielded green onions all winter and will soon bear potatoes and tomatoes. There was no junk up and down for the garbage man to get. There was no old ice boxes or old water heaters or anything.