Nolanville School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Way back in the early 1850s, pioneers were putting down roots in this part of Bell County, and they did what pioneers do. They built a schoolhouse.

One room, notched logs, probably more ambition than comfort, raised up around 1854. Now, that same year, Bell County got itself divided into fifteen school districts, and Nolanville School was one of the stories that came out of that. It didn't stay put, mind you.

Over the years, the school picked up and moved to several different sites around the area, chasing the community as it shifted and grew. Then came 1928 and 1929, and for that last high school class, the setting was something altogether different: a two-story brick schoolhouse standing right there in Nolanville. That was the last class to walk out with a high school diploma from this place.

After 1929, the school kept on teaching, but the grades offered fluctuated, sometimes nine, sometimes eight, depending on the year and the need. Time has a way of reshaping things, and by 1972 Nolanville had become a six-grade elementary school. That was also the year it merged with Killeen's Independent School District.

Could've been the end of the story right there. But it wasn't. In 1986, a brand new Nolanville school went up at this very site.

From a one-room log cabin to a new building on the same land where the community kept showing up, decade after decade. That's not a bad run for a little school that started with pioneers and a clearing.

What the marker says

Pioneers who settled this area in the early 1850s built a 1-room log schoolhouse about 1854. That year Bell County was divided into 15 school districts. Nolanville School moved to several different sites in the area. In 1928-29 the last high school class graduated from a 2-story brick schoolhouse in Nolanville. At various times after 1929 the school offered classes in nine or eight grades. At the time of its merger with Killeen's Independent School District in 1972 Nolanville was a six-grade elementary school. A new Nolanville school was built at this site in 1986. (1994)