Site of Westbrook School and Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it to you straight out of the historical record. Way out in Mitchell County, before Westbrook was really even Westbrook, two of the most important things a frontier community could have, a school and a church, were sharing the same tiny, one-room building. That building went up in 1890, raised by local settlers at a time when Westbrook was nothing more than a flag-stop on the Texas and Pacific Line.

Just a place the train might slow down for, if it felt like it. The plot was four acres, but the building itself was humble. Rough wooden benches.

One long recitation bench at the front, where pupils sat and called their lessons back from memory, the way schooling worked in the nineteenth century. And the school year, well, it lasted somewhere between three and six months. That was the whole of it.

Come Sunday morning, that same room became a house of worship. The Westbrook Baptist Church was organized in 1890, nine charter members, brought together by the Reverend J.C. Burkett, who was pastor of the Colorado City Church.

Sermons came only once a month, but Sunday school was held every single week. Now here's the part that'll stay with you. Parishioners sometimes lived miles out across that wide, scattered country.

So they'd cook and pack their basket lunches on Saturday, and come Sunday they'd spend the whole day at the church. All day. That little one-room building wasn't just a school and a church.

It was the social center for people who didn't have many centers to speak of. By 1902, the population had grown enough that a new church went up, north of the school yard. Then in 1905 the town provided a modern two-story school building.

And the old one-room structure, the one that had held spelling lessons and Sunday sermons and all those basket-lunch Sundays, was sold to a farmer to use as a barn. Today, only the cemetery remains at the site. Which, if you think about it, is the one part of a community that never gets outgrown.

What the marker says

These two pioneer institutions, which began even before the town grew up here, were first housed in the same tiny, one-room building. The structure was erected in 1890 by local settlers when Westbrook was only a flag-stop on the Texas & Pacific Line. Located on a four-acre plot, the single classroom had rough, wooden benches and, at the front, one long "recitation bench", where pupils sat to recite their lessons from memory in typical 19th Century style. The school "year" then lasted three to six months. On Sundays this was the site of services for the Westbrook Baptist Church, organized 1890 with nine charter members, by the Rev. J.C. Burkett, Pastor of the Colorado (City) Church. Although sermons were given only once a month, Sunday school was held each week. Parishioners, who often lived miles away, would cook and pack basket lunches Saturday and spend all day Sunday at the church. The building was a social center for the widely scattered settlers. In 1902, as population increased, a new church was erected north of the school yard; and in 1905 the town provided a modern, two-story school building. The old structure was sold to a farmer for use as a barn. Only the cemetery remains at the site today. (1969)