Lone Grove School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Lone Grove School has to say, and it's a good one. Out here on the road between Llano and Burnet, you're passing through country that had to build its civilization from scratch, one schoolhouse at a time. Llano County's early rural schools had names that sound like a roll call of the land itself.

Lone Grove, Flat Rock, Little Llano, McNutt, Spice Wood. Each one wasn't just a place to learn your letters. Each one was where a community gathered, argued, celebrated, and figured out who it was.

Now, of those schools, Lone Grove sat on a major route between Llano and Burnet, and that location mattered. Communities on a well-traveled road have a way of growing. And grow it did.

When officials divided Llano County into districts in 1884, Lone Grove earned the designation of district number two. Not a bad standing for a rural schoolhouse in the middle of Texas hill country. The schoolhouse you'd be looking at today dates to 1910, built on a site donated by two men, D.P.

Speck and J.L. Templeton. Somebody had to give the land, and they did.

The school kept serving its students and its community for decades, and then in 1937, something notable happened. Lone Grove became one of only two rural schools in the entire county to offer high school courses. Two out of all of them.

That's a distinction worth mentioning twice. The population kept growing, and building additions kept pace with it, right up until 1947, when Lone Grove consolidated with the Llano schools. The old schoolhouse didn't sit empty after that, though.

It found another life as a gathering place and a polling place, which means in a way it never stopped doing what those early rural schools always did. Bringing people together.

What the marker says

Lone Grove School Among the rural schools in early Llano County were Lone Grove, Flat Rock, Little Llano, McNutt and Spice Wood. These rural schools also served their communities as gathering places. Located on a major route between Llano and Burnet, Lone Grove grew, and when officials divided the county into districts in 1884, it became district number two. This schoolhouse dates to 1910, on a site donated by D.P. Speck and J.L. Templeton. In 1937, Lone Grove became one of two rural schools in the county to offer high school courses. Building additions served the growing population until consolidation with Llano schools in 1947. The building is now used as a gathering and polling place. (2002)