Education in Livingston

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Back in the 1840s, when Livingston was just finding its footing, the people who laid out this town knew something important. Education wasn't an afterthought.

It was part of the plan from day one. A man named Moses Choate donated a hundred acres for the townsite, and tucked right into that donation was land set aside for a school. That tells you something about what this community believed in.

Trinity Masonic Lodge No. 14, A.F. and A.M. took that belief and ran with it. They financed a free academy that began in 1849 and kept its doors open for thirty-one years. Classes met on the first floor of the Masonic lodge itself, on the southwest corner of what is now Old City Cemetery.

Imagine that. Lessons echoing through the same walls where the lodge conducted its business, right next to the ground where the town buried its dead. That is Livingston in its early years, life and learning stacked up close together.

Then 1888 arrives, and the Livingston Free School Corporation builds a frame schoolhouse on Jackson Avenue. They called it Livingston Graded School, and they dedicated it with some ceremony. The trustees kept pushing.

By 1906, under principal J.F. Stevens, they added ninth and tenth grades, and just like that, Livingston Graded School became Livingston High School. The upper classes met on the second floor, and in 1908 the first graduating class walked across whatever passed for a stage.

Three students. Three. Small enough to count on one hand, but somebody thought it was worth celebrating, and they were right.

That same summer, the schools offered an institute for African American teachers. The first African American school stood on West Street. The district was growing in more than one direction at once, though not always equally, and that tension would take decades to resolve.

In 1910, a bond issue brought something more substantial to Jackson Avenue. A two-story brick building, designed by the noted architectural firm of C.H. Page and Son out of Austin.

Solid. Serious. The kind of building that says a town intends to stay.

The district took the old frame schoolhouse and divided it into a new African American school and a residence. Progress rarely moved in a straight line. Trustees added an eleventh grade to Livingston High School in 1913, a meaningful step, because now graduates could actually meet college entrance requirements.

Before that, you had a diploma with nowhere certain to go. The 1930s brought new construction again. Dunbar High School rose for African American students, and a new Livingston High School went up for Anglo students.

That campus kept growing, picking up a football field, an auditorium, an additional classroom building. In 1941, trustees added a twelfth grade, rounding out what a high school education could mean. Then came 1965, and a Freedom of Choice program began the integration process.

Three years after that, all students were attending classes together. One building, one student body, the way it should have been from the start. The high school moved to new facilities in 1977.

And in 2006, the centennial year for Livingston High School, the graduating class had nearly three hundred students. From three graduates to nearly three hundred, across a hundred years. Moses Choate set aside the land, and Livingston never quite stopped deciding what to do with it.

What the marker says

Education has been integral to life in Livingston since the town's inception in the 1840s. Moses Choate's 100-acre donation for the townsite included land for a school. Trinity Masonic Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M. financed a free academy that began in 1849 and operated for 31 years. Classes were held on the first floor of the Masonic lodge, located on the southwest corner of what is now Old City Cemetery. In 1888, the Livingston Free School Corporation built a frame schoolhouse on Jackson Avenue, dedicated as Livingston Graded School. Trustees added ninth and tenth grades in 1906 under principal J.F. Stevens, creating Livingston High School. Classes were on the second floor, and the first graduating class in 1908 had three students. That summer, the schools offered an institute for African American teachers; the first African American school was on West Street. A 1910 bond issue paid for a two-story brick building on Jackson Avenue designed by the noted architectural firm of C.H. Page & Son of Austin. The district divided the previous schoolhouse into a new African American school and a residence. Trustees added an eleventh grade to Livingston High School in 1913, allowing graduates to meet college entrance requirements. In the 1930s, the district built Dunbar High School for African Americans and a new Livingston High School for Anglo students. This campus later expanded with a football field, auditorium and an additional classroom building. Trustees added a twelfth grade in 1941. A Freedom of Choice program began the integration process in 1965, and three years later all students attended classes together. The high school moved to new facilities in 1977. In 2006, the centennial year for Livingston High, the graduating class had nearly 300 students. (2007)