Opened in 1857 "in an old frame house, three log cabins, and a smokehouse",[1] it is the oldest continually-operated public school in Texas.

Black students attended the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School,[5] which had been established in 1887.

In 1939 the deaf-blind department was transferred to the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI).

[3] In 1965 the black and white deaf schools merged, and the student bodies were integrated the following year.

[3] The school's 67.5-acre (27.3 ha) site, located along South Congress, houses a 458,000-square-foot (42,500 m2), $65 million (as of 1989) campus designed by Barnes Architects, a company headquartered in Austin.

[3] The former black deaf school, located along Airport Boulevard, became the TSD East Campus in 1965.

[2] The State of Texas had built 11 buildings at the site, formerly occupied by the Montopolis Drive-in Theater, for $1.5 million in 1961.

[6] After the 2000–2001 school year TSD sold this property to the City of Austin, and the two campuses were consolidated.