Site of Reynolds Presbyterian Academy

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, out here in Shackelford County, the land has a way of swallowing up things that once stood proud. Schools, dreams, whole institutions, gone.

But for a stretch of time, something remarkable rose up on this very site. It started on counsel. The Reverend French McAfee had a vision, and somebody listened.

The school that came out of that counsel was named in honor of a pioneer rancher, Barber Watkins Reynolds, who had died in 1882. Reynolds Presbyterian Academy, they called it. And in 1898, it opened its doors, holding classes in a vacant storehouse.

Not a grand beginning, maybe, but a beginning all the same. Then came the building. A Richardsonian Romanesque-style building, finished and occupied in 1899.

Now, you have to picture that out here on this West Texas ground, that kind of masonry rising up against the sky. It was the kind of thing people noticed. And they came.

Dramas, lectures, musicals, all of it drew patrons from a large region. This wasn't just a schoolhouse. It was a gathering place, a cultural anchor for people scattered across a wide and lonesome stretch of country.

A dormitory was added in 1907. In 1909, the academy became a college. Things were growing, deepening.

And then, quietly, around 1915, it closed. The Reynolds Presbyterian Orphanage moved in and used the plant from 1916 to 1923, giving those walls one more chapter of purpose before the end came. The site was sold.

And in 1928, that fine masonry building, the one that had stood through dramas and graduations and children's laughter, was razed. All that Richardsonian Romanesque stone, brought down. What the years couldn't take, a decision did.

The marker stands now where the building once did. That's the only thing left to tell you something was here. And now you know.

What the marker says

Founded on counsel of the Reverend French McAfee; named in honor of a pioneer rancher, Barber Watkins Reynolds (d. 1882), the Reynolds Presbyterian Academy opened in 1898, with classes meeting in a vacant storehouse. A Richardsonian Romanesque-style building was finished and occupied 1899, and a dormitory added in 1907. Dramas, lectures, musicals drew patrons from a large region. In 1909, the school became a college; closed about 1915. Reynolds Presbyterian Orphanage used the plant in 1916-23. Site was sold and the fine masonry building razed in 1928. (1974)