DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, every school's got a story, but the Omaha School in Morris County — that one's got a beginning, a middle, and an ending that nobody quite saw comin'. It starts in 1892, when land was first purchased for a public school in Omaha.
Simple enough. Before long, a large wooden building rose up near the railroad tracks, and inside those walls you had three teachers doing their level best to keep 165 students on the straight and narrow. That's a lot of young minds, a lot of chalk dust, a lot of ambition.
The community had bigger plans. By 1905, Omaha formed an independent school district — standing on its own two feet — and the very next year they put up a new two-story brick structure. Brick.
That's a statement. That's a community saying we intend to be here a while. And they were.
The building was enlarged as necessary over the years, and then came the Works Progress Administration — the WPA — which erected a rock gymnasium between 1938 and 1940. A rock gymnasium. Built to last, built with purpose, built with the kind of craftsmanship that makes you stop and look twice.
Now here's where the story takes a turn. 1950. A tornado damaged the property. And in the aftermath of that storm — when a community is tired, when the question of what comes next hangs heavy in the air — a wealthy oilman and rancher made his move.
He urged the merger of Omaha with the nearby Naples school district, and he sweetened the deal with a promise of financial backing for the consolidated district. Whether that promise was the comfort it seemed or the lever it was, the marker doesn't say. But the merger happened.
The Omaha School was gone. And that rock gymnasium the WPA had built with such care — it was renovated for commercial use by its new owner. Some buildings outlast their purpose.
Some purposes outlast their buildings. Out here on the Texas road, it's worth stoppin' a moment for the 165 kids who once filled those halls — and for everything a community poured into a place before the wind and the deals of men changed the map forever.
What the marker says
Land was first purchased for a public school in Omaha in 1892 and a large wooden building near the railroad tracks soon housed three teachers and 165 students. The community formed an independent school district in 1905 and built a new two-story brick structure the following year. It was enlarged as necessary, including the addition of a rock gymnasium erected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1938 and 1940. After a tornado damaged the property in 1950, the school merged with nearby Naples at the urging of a wealthy oilman and rancher who promised financial backing for the consolidated district. The WPA gym was renovated for commercial use by its new owner. (1999) Incise on back: Glenda Brown Scarborough Sandra Smith Forsyth