Pleasant Hill School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you want to talk about something that endures, really endures, pull off the road a minute and consider Pleasant Hill. This is one of the oldest African-American communities in the entire state of Texas.

That's not a small thing to say. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was organized way back in 1843, and prominent members of that church made a decision that echoes forward through time — they donated the land right there beside the Old Monterey Road. A frame church went up, and a two-story schoolhouse alongside it.

A community planting roots so deep you can still feel them. Then comes 1925, and Pleasant Hill's citizens decided their children deserved better. They scraped together seven hundred dollars — seven hundred dollars from a rural African-American community in East Texas, in 1925, when that kind of money represented real sacrifice.

They didn't wait for the world to hand them something. They applied to the Julius Rosenwald School building program, established specifically to improve education for African Americans in the rural South, and that fund matched their contribution. The total cost came out to three thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars.

They built to Rosenwald plan 20-A, and here's the part I love — they salvaged what they could from the old schoolhouse, combined it with new materials, and built something that would last. Walk up to that building today and you see the care in every detail. It's a one-story side-gable schoolhouse with a symmetrical front elevation, a central projecting gable flanked by two front doors.

Craftsman-style work all the way — wide overhangs, exposed rafter tails, knee braces. Big 9/9 and 6/6 light windows dominating the front and rear facades. And inside, a central bay designed as an industrial room, two classrooms originally separated by a movable partition.

Somebody thought hard about this building. Somebody wanted it done right. The school opened with about seventy students and two teachers — Della Lindsay Warren and Professor R.

S. Guise. Over the years that followed, approximately twelve hundred students came through those doors, learning up through the eighth grade.

If a student wanted to finish high school, they made the journey to Fairview School near Linden. The grounds held a playground with a swing set, a merry-go-round, and a slide, added during the Great Depression — because even in hard times, children needed room to be children. A concrete storm shelter went up in the 1950s, because this community took care of its own.

Now, twenty-three Rosenwald schools were built in Cass County. Twenty-three. By 1964, with attendance down to around twenty-six students, Pleasant Hill School closed and those children transferred to Linden.

One by one, the others fell away too — to time, to weather, to neglect, to the long indifference that swallows up so many things that mattered. But not this one. Restored around 2009, named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2010, Pleasant Hill School stands today as a community center — the only one of those twenty-three Rosenwald schools in Cass County still remaining.

Out of twenty-three, one survived. And it's this one, built on donated land beside an old road, raised by people who put their seven hundred dollars and their faith into a building that would outlast every obstacle put in front of it. Some things are just built to last.

What the marker says

Pleasant Hill is one of the oldest African-American communities in Texas. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1843. Prominent church members donated this land beside the Old Monterey Road, and a frame church and two-story schoolhouse were built here. In 1925, citizens built this school with help from the Julius Rosenwald School building program, established to improve education for African Americans in the rural South. The school cost $3450, with the Rosenwald fund matching the $700 contribution of African American citizens. It was built per Rosenwald plan 20-A, from materials salvaged from the previous schoolhouse plus new materials. The plan features an “industrial room” in the central bay and two classrooms originally separated by a movable partition. The school opened with about seventy students and two teachers, Della Lindsay Warren and Professor R. S. Guise. Approximately 1,200 students attended school up to eighth grade at Pleasant Hill; those who wished to complete high school attended Fairview School near Linden. In 1964, with attendance around 26, the school closed and the students were transferred to Linden. The one-story side-gable schoolhouse features a symmetrical front elevation with a central projecting gable flanked by two front doors. Craftsman-style detailing on the wood frame building includes wide overhangs, exposed rafter tails and knee braces. Large 9/9 and 6/6 light windows dominate the front and rear facades. The historic grounds also include a playground with swing set, merry-go-round and slide added during the Great Depression and a concrete storm shelter built in the 1950s. Twenty-three Rosenwald schools were built in Cass County, but today Pleasant Hill School – restored ca. 2009 and now a community center – is the only one remaining. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2010