Miss Laura Chandler's Private School

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, James M. Chandler was a Confederate veteran, and after the Civil War he packed up his family and brought them to Texas.

About 1890, he built himself a residence on this property, along with several outbuildings. A stable. A few other structures.

The kind of place a man builds when he's putting down roots for good. Now, here's where the story gets interesting. In 1896, Chandler's daughter Laura looked at that stable, looked at that room above it, and decided it was exactly the right place to hold school classes.

And so she did. Miss Laura Chandler's Private School, conducted right there above the horses, above the hay, above whatever else a stable holds. For years, that was the arrangement.

Then came 1904. Laura Chandler married a man named Knox Herbert, and folks had to figure out what to do with a stable-schoolhouse. The answer, it turns out, was to remodel it.

That old stable, the one that had been a school, was remade into a residence for the newlyweds. The Herberts eventually moved on from Orange, but the structure itself, it stayed. Still stands today as a reminder of life in the Victorian era.

A building that started as a stable, became a school, became a home. Not bad for one piece of property in Orange County, Texas.

What the marker says

James M. Chandler was a Confederate veteran who brought his family to Texas after the Civil War. About 1890 he built a residence and several outbuildings, including a stable, on this property. In 1896, Chandler's daughter Laura began holding school classes in the room above the stable. In 1904, when she married Knox Herbert, this stable-schoolhouse was remodeled as a residence for the couple. Although the Herberts eventually moved from Orange, the structure stands as a reminder of life in the Victorian era. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986