Site of Columbus Female Seminary

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, Columbus, Texas has seen its share of history, and right here on this spot, something started that the whole town would carry for generations. The first organized school in Columbus.

Think about that. Not just a school. The first one.

And it didn't come from where you might expect. On February 3, 1851, Caledonia Lodge Number 68 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons founded the Columbus Female Seminary right here, tucking it into the first floor of their own lodge hall. The Masons giving over their ground floor to the education of young women.

That's a detail worth sitting with. The seminary taught literary subjects, music, and art. For many years, this building was the place where Columbus girls learned to read and reason and maybe play a few notes that drifted up through the floorboards to wherever the Masons conducted their business above.

It carried on. Year after year, the first floor of that lodge hall doing what the founders intended. Then September of 1909 arrived, and with it, a hurricane.

The building was destroyed. The first organized school in Columbus, the one that had stood since 1851, gone in a storm. Some things survive through the strength of their walls, and some things survive because the story gets told long enough that even the walls don't matter anymore.

You're standin on the proof of that right now.

What the marker says

First organized school in Columbus. Founded Feb. 3, 1851, by Caledonia Lodge No. 68, A. F. & A. M.; housed on first floor of lodge hall at this site. Seminary taught literary subjects, music, art, for many years. Building was destroyed in Sept. 1909 hurricane. (1973)