DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, most schools don't get to live twice. But Stony Point School — well, it had a way of sticking around.
By 1891, Stony Point School was up and running in Williamson County, serving the children of a rural stretch of Texas that was, at the time, quietly filling up with families who had made the long journey over from Sweden. Grades one through eight, all gathered together, learning what they could in a land that was still new to most of them. And here's the thing — for a good many of those children, walking through the schoolhouse door was the first time English showed up in their lives on any kind of regular basis.
At home, Swedish. In the fields, Swedish. But at school?
English. And as those students learned it, mastered it, they carried it back with them through the front door in the evenings. The school didn't just teach reading and arithmetic.
It helped bridge a whole language, helped an entire community find its footing in this land. That's not a small thing. For a lot of those farm kids, too, it was the only formal education they'd ever get.
Which makes what happened next feel about right. The school moved — twice, in fact. Started out in a one-room building on the Noack Ranch.
Now, somebody along the way had taken to calling that building Noack's Ark, and the students — charmed by the name, or maybe just clever — called it Arken. That's Swedish for ark. The school later moved to locations west and southwest of that original site, following the community as it shifted and settled.
In 1942, the doors closed for good. Stony Point merged with the Round Rock Independent School District, and that chapter ended. Except — it didn't, quite.
Alumni and teachers have gathered biennially ever since, coming back together to celebrate what that little school was. Then comes 1999. A new high school is opening in Round Rock, and a committee forms to recommend a name.
They chose Stony Point — in honor of the pioneer school. Today, Stony Point High School stands as a modern structure in a growing district. But that name carries something older with it.
Something about a one-room building on a ranch, and children learning a new language, and families trying to make a home somewhere far from where they started. Not bad for a school that started in a place folks called the Ark.
What the marker says
Stony Point School was established in Williamson County by 1891. Children living in the rural area attended the school, which served students from grades one through eight. Most of the students were sons and daughters of families that emigrated from Sweden. For many of the children, attendance at school was their first exposure to English on a regular basis. As students learned and mastered English, they brought the new language home. Thus, the school assisted in breaking the language barrier for the newly arrived Swedes, helping to acclimate them to this land. In addition, the school gave many of the students, who often lived on farms, their only formal education. The school changed locations twice in its years of existence. The first location was in a one-room building on the Noack Ranch nicknamed Noack's Ark. The students affectionately called in Arken, Swedish for ark. The school later moved to locations west and southwest of the original site. In 1942, the school officially closed, as historic Stony Point merged with the Round Rock Independent School District. Still, alumni and teachers have gathered biennially to celebrate the former school. In 1999, a new high school opened in Round Rock, and a committee formed to recommend a name chose Stony Point in honor of the pioneer school. Stony Point High School stands as a modern structure in a growing district, but its name reflects a different time, when a small school served the residents of what was then a rural community. (2006)