Forney High School Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker on this Forney landmark tells it, and it's worth every word. Picture a piece of ground in Kaufman County that just couldn't stop becoming something. Way back around 1868, somebody looked at this spot and said, this is the place, and put up Forney's very first schoolhouse right here.

Not long after, a pioneer settler by the name of John C. McKellar built the town's first general store somewhere nearby; 1871. So this ground had already seen learning and commerce before most of the country had caught up to Texas.

That's the kind of soil we're talking about. Now fast forward a good ways, and the Works Progress Administration comes along. The WPA, if you don't know, had a habit of turning hard times into lasting things.

In 1938 and 1939, they erected the building that still stands here today. Their architect on the job was a man named Hoke Smith, and Hoke did not phone it in. He designed a Spanish Colonial revival structure, and that's not just a fancy label.

We're talking a tile roof, multi-light windows, buff brick, and wrought iron and cast stone details worked into the whole thing. That building had ambition. A high school operated inside those walls all the way until 1974, then a middle school carried on until 1993.

Generation after generation of Kaufman County kids walked through those doors. One piece of ground: a first schoolhouse around 1868, a first general store in 1871, a WPA masterpiece in 1938, and students filling the halls for decades after that. Some spots just keep showing up for a town.

This one never stopped.

What the marker says

Forney's first schoolhouse was built here about 1868, and its first general store was built nearby by pioneer settler John C. McKellar in 1871. This building was erected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-39. Designed by WPA architect Hoke Smith, the Spanish Colonial revival style structure features a tile roof, multi-light windows, buff brick, and wrought iron and cast stone details. A high school was housed here until 1974 and a middle school until 1993. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995