Bartlett Grammar School
Bartlett, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By the early 1900s Bartlett had become the railroad center of a prosperous cotton growing region. In 1903 the Bartlett Independent School District was created. By 1906-07 the 5-room schoolhouse here proved inadequate to house the district's expanding student enrollment. Bartlett enlarged the district's tax base and passed a bond election, and in 1908-09 a new multi-wing brick building, designed by noted Austin architect A.O. Watson, was built here. When a new high school was erected in 1917, the facility at this site became an elementary/grammar school. The school closed in 1988. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By the early 1900s Bartlett had grown into the railroad hub of a prosperous cotton-growing district, and in 1903 it created its own school district. When a five-room schoolhouse quickly proved too small, the town passed a bond and in 1908-09 built a multi-wing brick building designed by noted Austin architect A.O. Watson. After a separate high school opened in 1917 the building became a grammar school, serving until it closed in 1988.
Why it matters
The rise of a purpose-built graded school reflects how cotton-and-railroad prosperity let small Texas towns invest in permanent public education in the Progressive era.
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Related people
- · A.O. Watson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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What started in 1902 as an idea to gather women around literature and history became, in April 1903, the Woman's Study Club of Bartlett, chartered with nineteen members and soon federated with the state organization as the Woman's Wednesday Club. In the Progressive Era spirit of civic betterment, the club reached far beyond its reading circle — sponsoring early Red Cross efforts and founding the town's first public library. Its members turned self-education into community service.
Site of Booker T. Washington School
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By the late 1940s Bartlett's African American school had outgrown its buildings, so trustees bought surplus structures from Camp Swift and, with a 1948 bond, raised a new U-shaped schoolhouse on the former site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Under principal Gentry "Prof" Powell, Sr., the accredited high school flourished, drawing students from surrounding towns and winning district and state championships before it was renamed for Booker T. Washington in 1957. When Bartlett's schools integrated in 1965, its dedicated teachers carried on at Bartlett High School.
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When Bartlett built a new brick schoolhouse in 1909, its old frame building was moved to this site to become the town's first school for African American children. Rebuilt after fires and patched together from recycled and relocated lumber, the unaccredited school struggled with distance and poverty until educators Gentry "Prof" Powell, Sr. and his wife arrived from Prairie View A&M in 1946. Within a year attendance had doubled past 160 and the school won accreditation as a full 12-grade system.