George Washington Carver High School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about George Washington Carver High School in Grimes County. Now settle in, because this story starts just after the Civil War and it's still going strong today. Around 1865, a reverend by the name of J.J.

Reinhart established something called the Navasota Colored School, a place of learning for African American students in a time when that act alone carried weight enough to fill a whole sermon. The school kept on, kept reaching, kept teaching. But fire had other ideas.

Several buildings were destroyed by fire over the years, and each time that community had to look at the ash and decide what came next. What came next, in 1942, was a brick building. Brick.

As if to say, go ahead and try. A few years after that brick building rose, the school received the name it would carry into history: George Washington Carver High School. When Navasota High School fully integrated in 1968, the Carver building didn't sit idle.

It shifted, adapted, served as an elementary school and then a middle school, all the way through 1974. Then it went quiet for a while. But August 1996 brought the building back to life as the Carver Learning Center for Alternative Education, because some buildings just refuse to stop being useful.

Then in 2008, the school district deeded the building to the school's own alumni association. The people who once walked those halls now hold the deed to them. Today it serves as the Carver Community Center, offering tutorials, summer camps, and other events.

From reverend Reinhart's schoolhouse to a community cornerstone, that building has outlasted the fire every single time.

What the marker says

Around 1865, reverend J.J. Reinhart established the Navasota Colored School for African American students. After several buildings were destroyed by fire, a brick building was built in 1942. A few years later, the school became officially known as George Washington Carver High School. After Navasota High School fully integrated in 1968, the building served as an elementary and later middle school until 1974. In August 1996, the building reopened as the Carver Learning Center for Alternative Education. In 2008, the school district deeded the building to the school's alumni association. It now serves as the Carver Community Center for tutorials, summer camps, and other events. (2017)