Site of Red Oak Academy

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out here in Johnson County, there's a patch of ground with a story hiding underneath it, and if you blink you might miss the sign that gives it away. So let me slow you down for just a minute.

Back in 1879, somebody had the ambition, and I do mean the ambition, to plant a college out here. This wasn't some big city with paved streets and a courthouse square. This was Brushy Mound.

That's what they called this stretch of country at the time, and into Brushy Mound they carried the idea of higher learning and set it down and said, let's see what grows. What grew was an early Texas college, right near this very site. Now, it didn't stay in its original form.

By 1885 it had been re-established, reborn you might say, under a brand new name: Alta Vista College. That name has a certain ring to it, doesn't it. Alta Vista.

Like somebody stood on a hill and looked out and liked what they saw. Then 1893 came around, and the college was transferred to the Presbyterian church, and with that transfer came another new name. They called it Red Oak Academy.

And here's where the story gets interesting, because that name didn't just stick to the school. It stuck to the land. The whole section around it came to be known as Academy Hill, named right after the school that sat upon it.

One institution, and it left its mark on the geography itself. But stories like this one don't always end with a ribbon cutting. The school closed in 1899.

The college that had worn three names, that had called itself a Brushy Mound dream and then Alta Vista and then Red Oak Academy, closed its doors. What's left is this hill, still carrying the name it earned, and a marker telling you that something important once stood right here.

What the marker says

An early Texas college, founded near this site (at that time part of Brushy Mound), 1879; re-established as Alta Vista College, 1885. Transferred in 1893 to Presbyterian church, it was renamed Red Oak Academy and inspired name for this section: "Academy Hill". The school closed in 1899.