O'Henry School Building

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along. Picture Llano, Texas, south side of the river, 1887. Somebody looked at the students down that way and said, they deserve a proper schoolhouse.

And proper is exactly what they got. The original section of this two-story building went up in native sandstone and timber, sturdy and stately enough that folks started calling it the College Building. Not because it was a college.

Just because it carried itself like one. There's something to be said for a schoolhouse that commands a little respect before you even walk through the door. Now, the story didn't stop there.

Come 1902, a new addition rose up on the north side of that building, and this time the builders reached for locally-quarried granite. Two different stones, two different eras, one school. And what school was it?

Well, that's where the name comes in. The school was named to honor the noted Texas writer William Sydney Porter, the man the world knew as O. Henry.

So the name O'Henry School was chosen as a tribute, plain and deliberate, to one of Texas's own. For decades after, that building held every grade under its roof, all of them together, sandstone and granite walls keeping the weather out and the learning in. That arrangement held until 1925, when a separate high school structure was finally built.

The College Building, as stubborn and solid as the stone it was made from, had done its job for every student who came through those doors. Some buildings just earn their name.

What the marker says

The original section of this two-story schoolhouse was completed in 1887 to serve the Llano students living south of the river. Constructed of native sandstone and timber, it was known as the "College Building" because of the stately style. An addition to the north of the schoolhouse, built of locally-quarried granite, was completed in 1902. The school name was chosen to honor the noted Texas writer William Sydney Porter (O. Henry). The O'Henry School building housed all grades until 1925, when a separate high school structure was built.