Texas Heritage, Winter 2005 Page: 15
39 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Rare Gems of Texas:
The Rural Schools of Gillespie County
By Bob BrinkmanT hey stand as silent sentinels, witnesses to generations of
reading lessons and baseball games, picnics and handpumped
water, education and camaraderie. Tucked
away off the scenic twists and turns of Hill Country lanes, the
rooms that once teemed with activity are now quiet, but echoes
of years past perhaps carry on the breezes that blow through the
live oak trees. They recall simpler times when community bound
us together and fellowship filled the days. Standing alone or
taken together, the rural schools of Gillespie County are among
the most significant historic resources in our state.
Their very names-Cherry Spring, Willow City, Pecan
Creek-evoke picturesque images of Texas' rural heritage. Each
site is an intact collection of buildings and structures that comprised
the rural schools of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
The schoolhouses are typically single-room plans, some of frame
construction and others of beautifully cut limestone blocks, with
original wooden doors, old lead-weight windows, and tin roofs.
The oak or pine floors are still in place, and a wood-burning stove
often provides the only heat even to this day. Many of the classrooms
hold the blackboards, desks, and wall maps and books from
decades past. It is as if time stood still when the final school bell
rang all those years ago.
On the school grounds, visitors might find a pavilion with
metal siding and a wooden stage, where school plays and end-ofyear
celebrations took place. Some of these stages have handpainted
canvas curtains from the 1930s, with a mountain scene in
the middle and the names of local merchants and sponsors listedaround the edges. A smaller building a few steps away was often
the teacherage, where the instructor and his or her family lived
while in the employ of the school trustees. The teacherage was
sometimes converted from a prior schoolhouse when a new and
larger one was built.
There is usually a barbecue pit, lined with corrugated metal or
stone, and sometimes including a shelter of cedar posts or telephone
poles supporting a metal roof. These were the scenes of
many a meal of good food and happy times. A metal backstop
marks the spot where the crack of the bat put friendly competition
in play. The open fields also hosted countless games of red
rover, kick the can, marbles, and volleyball. Ubiquitous to the
rural schools are remnants of the technology of the day: a rainwater
cistern, or a hand-dug well topped with a metal-sheathed
pump that still does the job, and separate girls' and boys' privies
in the corners of the yard, with some of them still in use.
Historic schools like these are scattered across Texas. But
Gillespie County has possibly the best collection to be found anywhere.
As many as 42 rural schools were in operation around
Fredericksburg early in the 20th century, and through school closings
and consolidation the active number has dwindled to four.
Yet only a few historic schools have been lost in this Hill Country
landscape, with the vast majority of the schoolhouses and the
outbuildings still in place. This may be due to the special character
of these villages and dispersed communities.
Even before the rural schools closed as educational facilities,
they were also serving as social gathering centers, polling places,HERITA GE WINTER 2005
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Texas Historical Foundation. Texas Heritage, Winter 2005, periodical, Winter 2005; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45368/m1/15/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.