Our Story
The Wonderland Story
For over five decades, Wonderland has transformed the lives of African-American students in Houston through academic achievement honed in a rigorous, supportive and caring environment in the historic Third Ward. The Beatrice Mayes Institute has nurtured students so they excel academically, build self-confidence, develop a positive character and adopt solid ethical standards.
Wonderland began with Beatrice Mayes and Thomas Mayes, experienced educators who were committed to providing their community with opportunities rarely available to African-American youth.
The couple founded the Wonderland Private School at Dixie, opening with 30 students in 1966. Now known as Wonderland Private School, this program has thrived, educating thousands of children ages 18 months to four years over the school’s 55-year history. In 1985, Wonderland expanded to educate children from kindergarten through 8th grade with the opening of the Beatrice Mayes Institute, which became a public charter school in 2001. Combined, Wonderland Private School and the Beatrice Mayes Institute currently educate more than 500 students each year.
The Mayes family and their commitment to education in the Third Ward
Thomas Mayes’s life can only be described as remarkable. Born in the Fifth Ward during the depths of the Depression in 1933, he lost his mother when he was 6 and his father at 12, leaving school and eventually becoming homeless. His resiliency and drive to succeed inspired him to return to school, graduate, join the military and eventually earn a college degree from the University of Houston. Mr. Mayes, a serial entrepreneur, owned businesses including a taxi service where he met Beatrice, who would become his wife. Together they saw the need to help a struggling community and were inspired to establish a school at the corner of Dixie and Calhoun in the Third Ward that is known today as Wonderland Inc.
For Beatrice Mayes, helping the powerless is a duty and responsibility she lives every single day. As a high school valedictorian and proud graduate of Texas Southern University, she knew that education could lift up others and provide the most crucial path to betterment and opportunity. Since establishing the Wonderland Private School at Dixie in 1966, she has become the first national youth director and national president for National Women of Achievement (NWOA), a member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), a member of National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC), a founding member of Saint Agnes Missionary Baptist Church and a diligent fundraiser for the NAACP, NWOA and the Thomas Mayes Sr. Scholarship.
Mr. Mayes is an example of an individual refusing to be defined by negative circumstances, and proof that anyone can grow and overcome the most challenging of conditions and create a path for success through hope, opportunity and tenacity. Adding Mrs. Mayes’s drive, determination and commitment to transforming lives for the better, together they started a movement rooted in high-quality education that would transform a community.