Gaston Public School Complex

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little something extra in the delivery. You're looking at the Gaston Public School Complex, out here in Rusk County, and the story starts the way so many Texas stories do: oil. An oil boom in the early 1930s hit this community, and it hit hard and fast.

The student population swelled up so quick that folks had to get organized in a hurry, and so in 1931 the Gaston Independent School District came into being, born of necessity and a whole lot of new neighbors. Now when you're building a school district from scratch, you don't just grab a hammer and start nailing. Gaston reached all the way to Dallas and hired architects Emory White and Howard DeFee to design the thing right.

And right they did it. By 1932, two brick buildings were standing at this very site, an elementary school and a two-story high school, along with a football field. Brick.

Two stories. A football field. That is a community that means business.

But they weren't done. Not even close. In 1936 they added a wooden gymnasium and a brick auditorium.

In 1938, a home economics cottage. In 1939, a brick cafeteria. In 1940, a shop building.

One by one, year by year, this campus grew like the community itself was stacking it with its own hands. And connecting it all, arcades linking the structures together, giving the whole complex a sense of purpose and proportion. The buildings themselves carry classically articulated features, sophisticated cast-stone and window details, the kind of craftsmanship that makes you stop and look twice.

Then there's the landscaping, and this is the part that'll get you. The rustic style grounds, including walls built from native stone pulled right off the nearby Hardy farm, were completed by the Works Progress Administration between 1936 and 1940. Federal hands and local stone, shaping the same campus.

Now you build something that fine, you better fill it with students who rise to meet it. And they did. During the 1940s and 1950s, Gaston students earned county, district, and regional championships in football, basketball, and track.

They took awards in journalism, band, debate, and other literary areas. And somewhere in those halls, somebody earned a Rhodes Scholarship. Let that one sit for a second.

A Rhodes Scholarship, out of Gaston, Texas, built on oil boom optimism and native stone walls. In 1965, Gaston schools merged with the London school system to form the West Rusk County Independent School District, and this campus became part of something larger. But what was built here, brick by brick and year by year, starting with that first urgent moment of organization in 1931, that's the kind of story a place earns.

This campus didn't just house an education. It was one.

What the marker says

An oil boom here in the early 1930s prompted the formal organization of the Gaston Independent School District in 1931 to cope with the community's rapidly expanding student population. The district chose Dallas architects Emory White and Howard DeFee to design both an elementary and a 2-story high school building. These brick structures were completed at this site, along with a football field, in 1932. The district added a wooden gymnasium and brick auditorium in 1936, home economics cottage in 1938, brick cafeteria in 1939 and shop building in 1940. Linked by arcades, the structures exhibit classically articulated features and sophisticated cast-stone and window details. The rustic style landscaping, which includes walls made of native stone from the nearby Hardy farm, was completed by the Works Progress Administration in 1936-1940. Students at this institution earned county, district and regional championships in football, basketball, and track, as well as awards in journalism, band, debate and other literary areas, including a Rhodes Scholarship, during the 1940s and 1950s. Gaston schools merged with the London school system in 1965 to form the West Rusk County Independent School District. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993