Pedernales Rural School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Way out in Gillespie County, along the Pedernales, there's a building that has worn a few different hats over the years. And the story of how it got there goes back to the 1840s, when German immigrant farmers put down roots and built themselves a community right here.

They called it Pedernales, and they meant to stay. By 1854, the Pedernales community had joined up with the Live Oak community, and together they formed a school district. That right there tells you something about these folks.

They weren't waiting around. Sometime before 1875, they raised a schoolhouse out of native stone, right here at this site. Native stone.

The kind that says, we're not building something temporary. This is a place. Now, the school ran on state funds and tuition, one teacher handling seven grades all at once.

You think about that for a second. One teacher. Seven grades.

Every age, every lesson, every stubborn child who didn't want to conjugate a verb that morning. But here's the thing, that schoolhouse wasn't all hard work and discipline. The community made sure of that.

There were picnics, plays, Christmas programs, music practices. And then there was what they called schulpruefung, final exam day, which somehow became a picnic tradition. Only way to make a final exam tolerable, apparently, is to follow it up with good food and good company.

Those traditions held for decades. Generation after generation of Pedernales children walked through that stone doorway. Then came World War II, and the enrollment started falling.

The community was changing, as communities do in hard times. By 1945, the school closed its doors. The building stood quiet for a good while after that, until the 1980s, when it was converted to residential use.

So that native stone schoolhouse, the one built before 1875 to hold seven grades and one teacher, the one that rang with Christmas programs and the anxiety of schulpruefung, is still standing. Just living a different kind of life now. Some buildings earn that.

What the marker says

The Pedernales community, established here by German immigrant farmers in the 1840s, was joined with the Live Oak community to form a school district in 1854. Sometime prior to 1875 a native stone schoolhouse was built at this site. State funds and tuition supported the 1-teacher, 7-grade school. Picnics on "schulpruefung" (final exam day), plays, Christmas programs, and music practices became traditional activities at the school. Falling student enrollment during World War II led to the school's closing in 1945. The school building was converted to residential use in the 1980s. (1993)