DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place, so take it straight from the record. Now, picture a hill in Hays County, and picture somebody lookin' up at that hill and thinking: whatever we put up there ought to crown the whole landscape. That somebody was an educator named O.
N. Hollingsworth, and in 1868 he established a private school on that very rise. He called it the Coronal Institute, coronal meaning crown, because that's exactly what it was, a crown atop the hill.
Coeducational from the start, which wasn't nothing to take for granted in 1868, and it offered military training to the boys on top of the regular schooling. Hollingsworth built something worth noticing. Now, a school like that draws attention, and in 1870 a man named Reverend R.
H. Belvin bought the school right out from under its founding era. Belvin ran it for a stretch, then in 1876 sold it to the Methodist Church, and the Methodists took the wheel from there.
The first structure was limestone, solid and stubborn as the hill it sat on. But in 1890, it burned. Just like that, gone.
You'd think that might be the end of the story, but the hill wasn't finished yet. A handsome, three-story building rose up to replace it, and hundreds of students walked through those doors over the years that followed. The Coronal Institute helped pioneer education across southwest Texas.
That's not a small thing. That's a legacy carved right into the region. The Methodist Church closed the school in 1918.
Then in 1925 it was sold to the San Marcos School District, and the crown passed on. But that hill remembers what stood on it.
What the marker says
Established 1868 by educator O. N. Hollingsworth. A private school, it was coeducational and offered military training to boys. So-named because it was a Coronal (crown) atop this hill. In 1870 the Rev. R. H. Belvin bought school, but sold it to the Methodist Church in 1876. First structure, of limestone, burned in 1890. A handsome, 3-story building soon replaced it. Hundreds of students attended institute, which helped pioneer education in southwest Texas. The Methodist Church closed school, 1918. It was sold, 1925, to San Marcos School District.