Historic La Porte Colored School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Historic La Porte Colored School. Now, before there was ever a proper schoolhouse in La Porte for African American children, there was a church. Students came through those doors during the week to learn, and then the congregation came through those same doors in the evenings and on weekends to worship.

One building, carrying two kinds of hope at once. Around 1909, the community took a step forward. A dedicated school building, the former Morgan's Point Methodist Church, was purchased and moved to this very location.

What they got was a one-room, wood frame building. One room, grades one through eight. Everything that needed to happen in a child's early education happened inside those walls.

Now, if a student wanted to keep going past eighth grade, they had options. George Washington Carver High School in Baytown, eight miles to the northeast. Eight miles wasn't nothing, but some made that trip.

And then there was Viola Dewalt. According to oral history, she was the school's teacher until her retirement in 1943. Let that settle for a moment.

The community knew her so well, held her in such regard, that many didn't even call it the La Porte Colored School. They called it Mrs. Dewalt's school.

That is a particular kind of honor, the kind that doesn't come from a title but from years of showing up. In that same year, 1943, a two-room building was moved onto an adjacent lot. Grades one through four in one room, grades five through eight in the other.

And the old one-room building, the original, it didn't sit idle. The desks stayed in there, and the stage too, because the students put on plays and musical productions, and that mattered. Local churches were allowed to use it for meetings and other events.

That little building kept working. In 1953, a new brick school was built on North 6th and Madison for the African American community, and this campus was closed. But the original one-room building wasn't done yet.

In the 1980s and into the 1990s, the La Porte chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star used it as a meeting hall. A building that had held first-graders and eighth-graders and congregations and performers and community gatherings just kept on holding people. This school, reconstructed with a new addition in 2018 using some salvaged original materials, still stands.

And that is exactly the point. It's a tangible reminder, the marker says, of early African American education in La Porte. Not a symbol, not a story, a place.

Wood and brick and memory, right where it has always been.

What the marker says

Prior to the establishment of a public school in La Porte, African American students were educated at a local church where students attended class during the week and religious services were held in the evening and on weekends. Around 1909, a dedicated school building, the former Morgan's Point Methodist Church, was purchased and moved to this location. The schoolhouse at that time was a one-room, wood frame building that served grades one through eight. Students wishing to continue their education after eighth grade attended George Washington Carver High School in Baytown, eight miles to the northeast. According to oral history, Viola Dewalt was the school's teacher until her retirement in 1943. She was so integral to the school that many referred to it as "Mrs. Dewalt's school." In 1943, a two-room building was moved to an adjacent lot. Classes were moved into the two-room building with grades one through four in one room and grades five through eight in the other. The desks and stage remained in the smaller building for plays and musical productions by the students. Local churches were allowed to use the building for meetings and other events. In 1953, a new brick school was built on North 6th and Madison for the African American community and this campus was closed. The original one-room building was used by the La Porte chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star as a meeting hall during the 1980s and 1990s. This school, reconstructed with a new addition in 2018 using some salvaged original materials, is a tangible reminder of early African American education in La Porte.