Whitt Seminary

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, straight from Parker County. In January of 1880, the elders of the Christian Church at Whitt did something that says a lot about a community: they went out and purchased five acres of land, right here at this site, with a school in mind. Not just any school.

They broke ground on a two-story rock building, and come 1881, the Whitt Seminary opened its doors. By 1885, Whitt had grown into a thriving community of around four hundred inhabitants, with a number of businesses humming along and (and this part matters) a sincere interest in quality education. That phrase comes straight off the marker, and I think it earns its place.

Now, enrollment at the Seminary ran somewhere between 175 and 200 students. These weren't all local kids, either. They came from surrounding communities, and some made the journey all the way down from the Oklahoma Territory.

Think about that for a second. Families in the Oklahoma Territory looked south toward Parker County and said, yes, that's where we're sending our children to learn. What were they learning?

Well, pull up a chair, because the list is something. The Seminary covered elementary through high school students and ran three departments under one roof: an academic department, a music department, and a commercial school. On the music side, students could study piano, organ, guitar, violin, and voice.

The academic courses ranged from spelling and writing all the way up through trigonometry, astronomy, chemistry, Latin, English literature, and history. And if you had a head for business, there was bookkeeping, commercial law, and typing waiting for you too. In a two-story rock building in Parker County in the 1880s.

That's the Whitt Seminary. It served the community from 1881 until about 1900; nearly twenty years of educating young Texans and Oklahomans alike. But the building didn't go quiet after that.

It kept right on serving as a Christian church until 1937, and then it became the kind of place communities hold onto for different reasons: site for community functions, family reunions, and annual Whitt homecomings. In 1976, the original five acres, the Seminary building, and the tabernacle were deeded to the Whitt Cemetery Association. That two-story rock building has outlasted the frontier, outlasted the school, outlasted the church era, and it's still tied to the people who built this community.

Some legacies don't need much more than good stone and a community that remembers.

What the marker says

In January 1880 the elders of the Christian Church at Whitt purchased five acres of land at this site to build a community school. The Whitt Seminary opened in 1881 in a two-story rock building. By 1885 Whitt was a thriving community of about 400 inhabitants with a number of businesses and a sincere interest in quality education. Seminary enrollment was between 175 and 200 students who came from local and surrounding communities and from as far away as the Oklahoma Territory. The Seminary educated elementary through high school students and included an academic department, a music department, and a commercial school. Music courses offered included piano, organ, guitar, violin, and voice. Other courses included bookkeeping, commercial law, writing, spelling, typing, trigonometry, history, English literature, astronomy, chemistry, and Latin. The Whitt Seminary served the community from 1881 until about 1900. The facility continued to be used as a Christian church until 1937, and then served as a site for community functions, family reunions, and annual Whitt homecomings. The original five acres, Whitt Seminary building and tabernacle were deeded to the Whitt Cemetery Association in 1976. (1991)