Site of Independence School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Independence, Washington County, Texas. A town with a story that starts in a one-room schoolhouse and ends with the schoolhouse becoming somebody's living room.

Let me walk you through it. Private schools were already running in Independence as early as 1835. But tax-supported public schools, the kind the county actually funded and stood behind, those didn't arrive until the 1870s.

In September of 1870, the county court made it official, ordering that each of the five precincts in the county be divided into two school districts. One for white students, one for black students. Separate from the start.

Then came 1874, and the first county school tax was levied. That opened the door to actually building something. For a while, classes for white students were held in a small frame building and in the former facilities of Baylor Female Academy.

Making do with what was there. But in 1889, the first purpose-built public school building went up right on this site, on the town square. That was a moment.

By 1937, an average of forty-four students were filling those seats, taught by three teachers. A small school, sure, but a real one, a living one. And then 1939 arrived, and the 1889 schoolhouse was destroyed in a fire.

Just gone. But Independence didn't quit. Another building went up on that same site, same square, same ground.

That should have been the end of the hard times. It wasn't. In 1949, the State Legislature passed the Gilmer-Aiken Law, and that law had far-reaching effects on the boundaries and funding of school districts all across Texas.

Independence School's enrollment did not meet the new minimum requirements. So in 1953, the school was closed. The last building on that square, the one that rose from the ashes of the old one, it didn't sit empty forever.

It became a private home. A schoolhouse turned front porch and kitchen. Some places carry their history in stone monuments.

Independence carries it in the floorboards of somebody's house.

What the marker says

Although private schools were in operation in Independence as early as 1835, tax-supported public schools were not established until the 1870s. In September 1870 the county court ordered that each of the five precincts in the county be divided into two school districts--one for white students and one for black students. The first county school tax was levied in 1874, paving the way for schoolhouse construction. Classes for white students were conducted in a small frame building and in former facilities of Baylor Female Academy until the first public school building was erected on this site on the town square in 1889. By 1937 an average of forty-four students were attending the school, taught by three teachers. The 1889 schoolhouse was destroyed in a 1939 fire, and another building was erected on the same site. Passed by the State Legislature in 1949, the Gilmer-Aiken Law had far-reaching effects on the boundaries and funding of school districts in Texas. Because its enrollment did not meet the new minimum requirements, Independence School was closed in 1953. The last school building later became a private home. (1989)