Lakeview School and Community

Duane's take

The official marker for Lakeview School and Community in Hale County, Texas, and here's how I tell it. Now, every community out here on the Texas plains has a beginning, and Lakeview's beginning wasn't one thing. It was two.

Two pioneer schools, out in the wide open, each one doing its level best to bring learning to the children of Hale County. The first was Ivey School, about five and a half miles to the northeast. It opened in 1892, and it had a three-room schoolhouse to its name.

Three rooms. That was something out here. Over time, that schoolhouse got picked up and moved closer to where we're standing now, a site about two miles east.

Then came Star School, about two miles to the northwest, opening its doors in 1904. Here's where the story gets good. In 1914, both schoolhouses, Ivey and Star, were physically moved onto this very site and joined together to form one single building.

Two schools, one roof. They gave this new consolidated school a new name, Lakeview, and the first teacher to stand in front of those students was A. H.

Tedford. By 1919, an independent school district was formally organized, and then in the 1920s, they went and built a proper brick schoolhouse to go with it. And where a school goes, a community follows.

Lakeview grew up right around it. By the time the 1920s and 1930s rolled around, this place had a Methodist church, a Baptist church, a blacksmith shop, a gin, a garage, retail stores, and homes. A real town.

The kind of place where you knew everybody and everybody knew your business, which out on the plains could be a comfort or a complication, depending on the week. But the story has a quiet ending. In 1943, the Lakeview School closed, and the students were transferred to Abernathy and Petersburg.

The community that had built up around that school, it faded too. Today, Lakeview is a ghost town. Walk out here now and what you'll find is the Methodist church still standing, and the foundation of that brick schoolhouse, still there in the ground, holding its place.

A foundation and a church. That's what's left of a place that was once an important part of the education of Hale County children. The schoolhouse is gone, but the ground remembers where it stood.

What the marker says

The Lakeview School traces its roots to two area pioneer schools. Ivey School (approximately 5.5 mi. NE) opened in 1892. Classes were held in a three-room schoolhouse, which was later moved to a site closer to this location (about 2 miles East). Star School (approximately 2 mi. NW) opened in 1904. The Ivey and Star schoolhouses were moved onto this site in 1914 and joined to form one building. The consolidated schools were renamed Lakeview, and the first teacher was A. H. Tedford. An independent school district was formally organized in 1919, and a new brick schoolhouse was erected in the 1920s. Soon after the establishment of the Lakeview School a community began to build up in this vicinity. At its height in the 1920s and 1930s the community boasted a Methodist church, a Baptist church, a blacksmith shop, a gin, a garage, retail stores, and homes. The Lakeview School closed in 1943 and students were transferred to Abernathy and Petersburg. The only physical remnants of the settlement are the Methodist church and the foundation of the brick schoolhouse. Now a ghost town, Lakeview Community was once an important part of the education of Hale County children. (1989)