DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there's a story hiding in plain sight right here in Lockhart, Caldwell County — a story about a building that had to fight for every single brick before it ever taught a single child. Let me set the scene.
It is 1923, and the African American children of Lockhart are learning wherever they can squeeze in. The little ones are splitting time between Sunset School, Mount Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Masonic Lodge. And the high schoolers — well, they're heading to a building on Live Oak Street that, depending on the hour, might be a funeral parlor or a domino hall.
School. Funeral parlor. Domino hall.
All the same building. Now that is Texas making do. But somebody looked at that arrangement and decided it wasn't good enough.
Not by a long shot. So here's where the story gets interesting. According to local tradition — and in Texas, local tradition has a long memory — the materials used to build this new school were salvaged from Ross Institute, a former school for Lockhart's caucasian children.
The old becomes the new. The discarded becomes the foundation. There's something almost poetic in that, and not entirely by accident.
Now they needed more than old bricks and determination. They turned to the Rosenwald Foundation, out of Chicago, which had made it its business to fund African American schools across the south in the early twentieth century. The Foundation provided the design and part of the construction cost.
But here's what you need to hear — the school district and the local African American citizens themselves raised the majority of the funds. The majority. That school rose because a community willed it into existence.
And what a building it turned out to be. A two-story brick and stucco schoolhouse, six classrooms, a principal's office, and a large auditorium that didn't just serve students — it served the whole neighborhood as a social center. Prominent brick and stucco pilasters climbing right up past the parapet on that main façade.
Big banks of windows on the east and west sides, pulling in every drop of natural light they could catch. A centrally located portico with double doors welcoming you in from the front. This was not a building that apologized for itself.
R.A. Atkinson became the first principal, and under his watch the school earned state accreditation in 1926. At that time, students could take two years of high school coursework right here, and then head to Luling for the twelfth grade.
The school grew in stature and in name — by 1946 it had become G.W. Carver High School. It stood and it served until 1964, when school integration closed its doors as a school.
But the building didn't just sit idle. It went to work again, this time for the Head Start program. Salvaged materials.
Raised funds. Borrowed spaces. A community that refused to let its children go without.
The marker went up in 2008, a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, making sure Lockhart doesn't forget what it took to build something worth remembering.
What the marker says
According to local tradition, materials salvaged from Ross Institute, a former school for Lockhart's caucasian children, were used in 1923 to build this school for African American students. The Rosenwald Foundation of Chicago, which funded many African American schools in the south in the early 20th century, provided the design and part of the construction cost. The school district and local African American citizens raised the majority of the funds for its completion. Previously, African American children attended classes scattered throughout town. Elementary-aged students learned at Sunset School, Mt. Salem Methodist Episcopal Church or the Masonic Lodge; high school students used a building on Live Oak Street that was also a funeral parlor and domino hall. The two-story brick and stucco schoolhouse contained six classrooms, a Principal's office and a large auditorium that also served as a social center for the neighborhood. Prominent brick and stucco pilasters on the unadorned main façade rise above the parapet. The east and west sides of the building have large banks of windows to maximize natural light. The lower level has a centrally located portico with double doors that divide the principal façade. R.A. Atkinson was the first pricipal of the school, which received state accreditation in 1926. At the time two years of high school coursework were offered here, and students could attend the twelfth grade in Luling. In 1946, the facility changed its name to G.W. Carver High School. It closed in 1964 due to school integration, but the building was later used by the Head Start program. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2008