Old Rock Schoolhouse

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just Duane along for the ride. Out here in Sutton County, there's a two-story building made of native rock that's been holding its ground for well over a century now. They call it the Old Rock Schoolhouse, and the story behind those walls is worth your time.

Back in 1904, this community had a growing population on its hands and a school system that needed room to breathe. So they brought in a rockmason, a man named T. S.

Hodges, out of Lockhart, and they said, build us something that lasts. And friend, he did exactly that. Hodges went to a quarry east of town, pulled native rock right out of the earth, and crafted himself an Italianate schoolhouse, two stories tall, the kind of building that makes you stop your truck and just look at it for a minute.

Originally, that structure housed the entire school system: every grade, every desk, the whole operation under one roof. In time it shifted, serving as a junior high facility, then an elementary school, shapeshifting to meet whatever the town needed from it. Then came 1914, and Hodges was back.

He added on to the south end of the building, and here's the thing about a craftsman who knows his own work; that addition complements the original structure so well you'd almost think it was always there. Two separate moments in time, one man's hands, one quarry's stone, one building that kept on teaching. That old rock schoolhouse is still standing in Sutton County, and the rock doesn't lie.

What the marker says

This Italianate schoolhouse was built in 1904 to provide improved educational facilities for a growing population. Rockmason T. S. Hodges of Lockhart used native rock from a quarry east of town to craft the two-story building. Originally housing the entire school system, it later served as a junior high facility and elementary school. A 1914 addition to the south end of the building, also built by Hodges, complements the original structure. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark--1990