Carroll School

Duane's take

The marker's the authority out here, and here's how I tell it. Now, every great thing starts somewhere small. And out in what would become Tarrant County, it started with a school called Dove, sitting somewhere nearby in 1847, one of the earliest schools the county had ever seen.

That single schoolhouse planted a seed. Before long, White's Chapel, Sams, and Easter, later going by the name Union, were all serving this stretch of Texas in the late 1800s. Four little schools, scattered across the land, each one doing its part.

But scattered can only take you so far. In 1917, Tarrant County Commissioners looked at all those separate schools and decided to bring them together. They combined the lot into Common School District No. 99, and eventually that district got a proper name, named for the County Superintendent of Public Instruction, a man by the name of B.

E. Carroll. Still, even with a unified district and a respectable name, students were out there attending one-room schools spread all across the place.

The name had changed. The situation, not so much. So in May of 1919, the residents of the district did what Texans do when something needs doing.

They petitioned. They took their case to the Commissioners Court and asked for a property tax election, specifically for seventy-five hundred dollars in construction bonds, enough to put up a real, centrally located school. Now, the vote was held in June, right there at White's Chapel Methodist Church.

Twenty-nine in favor. Twenty-five against. Four votes.

That is a razor-thin margin, friends, the kind that makes you hold your breath even a hundred years later. But those twenty-nine votes were enough. The first school trustees, E.

E. Higgins, J. R.

Shivers, and B. F. Griffin, paid five hundred dollars for a five-acre hilltop parcel.

Then Frank Estill built it, a three-room, one-story brick schoolhouse sitting up on that hill. When the doors opened, three teachers were there waiting for ninety-seven students across nine grades. They added a wood-framed classroom for the younger ones behind the building, and a lunchroom, and a teacherage standing nearby.

Not grand by any measure, but solid. Purposeful. Around 1950, three more rooms were added to the schoolhouse, filling out what the years of growth had demanded.

And then came 1956, which turned out to be a date this building would carry forever. Carroll School became the polling place where residents voted to incorporate. Right there in that brick schoolhouse on the hill, the city of Southlake was born.

The school didn't stop there, either. For several years it pulled double duty as the town hall for that brand-new city. In 1959, voters came back to the polls and created Carroll Independent School District.

The school kept right on as an elementary school until 1970, then shifted into classrooms and office space, carrying the district forward until 2001, when it finally closed. The marker calls it the first public building in what was once a rural settlement. And when you add it all up, from Dove School in 1847 to a city's founding vote in 1956, from four scattered one-room schools to a brick building on a hilltop that outlasted nearly everyone's expectations, well.

Humble beginnings have a way of growing into something much bigger than the people who cast those twenty-nine votes could have imagined.

What the marker says

DOVE SCHOOL BEGAN NEARBY IN 1847 AS ONE OF THE EARLIEST SCHOOLS IN TARRANT COUNTY. WHITE'S CHAPEL, SAMS, AND EASTER (LATER UNION) SCHOOLS ALSO SERVED THE AREA IN THE LATE 1800s. IN 1917, TARRANT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COMBINED THE SCHOOLS TO FORM COMMON SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 99, LATER NAMED FOR COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION B. E. CARROLL. STUDENTS CONTINUED TO ATTEND ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS ACROSS THE DISTRICT. IN MAY 1919, RESIDENTS OF THE DISTRICT PETITIONED THE COMMISSIONERS COURT TO HOLD A PROPERTY TAX ELECTION FOR $7500 IN CONSTRUCTION BONDS FOR A CENTRALLY LOCATED SCHOOL. IN JUNE VOTERS CAST THEIR BALLOTS AT WHITE'S CHAPEL METHODIST CHURCH; THE VOTE WAS 29 FOR AND 25 AGAINST. E. E. HIGGINS, J. R. SHIVERS AND B. F. GRIFFIN, THE FIRST SCHOOL TRUSTEES, PAID $500 FOR A FIVE ACRE HILLTOP PARCEL, AND FRANK ESTILL BUILT A THREE-ROOM ONE-STORY BRICK SCHOOLHOUSE. THE SCHOOL OPENED WITH THREE TEACHERS TO INSTRUCT 97 STUDENTS IN NINE GRADES. A WOOD-FRAMED CLASSROOM FOR LOWER GRADES AND A LUNCHROOM WERE BUILT BEHIND THE SCHOOL. A TEACHERAGE STOOD NEARBY. ABOUT 1950, THE SCHOOLHOUSE EXPANDED WITH THREE ADDITIONAL ROOMS. IN 1956, CARROLL SCHOOL BECAME THE BIRTHPLACE OF SOUTHLAKE AS THE POLLING PLACE WHERE RESIDENTS VOTED TO INCORPORATE. FOR SEVERAL YEARS, THE SCHOOL ALSO SERVED AS TOWN HALL. IN 1959, VOTERS CREATED CARROLL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. CARROLL SCHOOL REMAINED AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UNTIL 1970 BEFORE BECOMING CLASSROOMS AND OFFICE SPACE UNTIL CLOSING IN 2001. CARROLL SCHOOL, THE FIRST PUBLIC BUILDING IN THIS ONCE-RURAL SETTLEMENT, EMBODIES THE TRADITIONS AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF A GROWING PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CITY.