Buda School
Buda, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
THE BUDA SCHOOL SYSTEM ORGANIZED FROM THE CONSOLIDATION OF SEVERAL 19TH CENTURY RURAL SCHOOLS, INCLUDING ELM GROVE (LARGEST SCHOOL IN HAYS COUNTY IN 1876), GOFORTH, TURNERSVILLE, MOUNTAIN CITY, ANTIOCH, SCIENCE HALL AND KELLYVILLE. IN 1881, THE YEAR CORNELIA TRIMBLE PLATTED BUDA, MARY ADAMS ESTABLISHED THE FIRST SCHOOL ON PROPERTY EAST OF THE RAILROAD TRACK ALONG RAILROAD STREET AND SERVED AS ITS TEACHER. IN 1885, SCHOOL TRUSTEES ERECTED A TWO-STORY WOODEN SCHOOL BUILDING AT THE CURRENT SITE. IN 1908, TRUSTEES REPLACED IT WITH A LARGER, TWO-STORY BRICK BUILDING TO ACCOMMODATE BUDA’S GROWING POPULATION. WHEN THAT STRUCTURE BURNED IN 1928, BUILDERS COMPLETED THE PRESENT MISSION STYLE, ONE-STORY SCHOOLHOUSE, DESIGNED BY AUSTIN ARCHITECT ROY L. THOMAS, WHICH INCORPORATED THE STANDING WALLS OF THE PREVIOUS BUILDING, STILL VISIBLE IN THE AUDITORIUM SPACE. THE AUDITORIUM WAS SIGNIFICANT TO PARENTS AND STUDENTS, HOSTING SCHOOL EVENTS BEFORE TRANSFORMATION TO A COMMUNITY ROOM. FROM 1931 TO 1945, BOB BARTON, SR. SERVED AS SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, IN ADDITION TO HIS OTHER DUTIES AS BUS DRIVER, TEACHER AND COACH. HE AND HIS WIFE, MARIETTA, AIDED IN THE FIGHT FOR SCHOOL INTEGRATION, WHICH BEGAN WHEN THE CITY’S MEXICAN AMERICAN SCHOOL CLOSED IN 1948. AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE ABLE TO ATTEND THE MAIN SCHOOL IN 1956, WITH GRADES ONE THROUGH EIGHT INTEGRATED BY 1961. BUDA, KYLE AND WIMBERLEY SCHOOLS JOINED IN 1967 TO FORM HAYS CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT (WIMBERLEY HAS SINCE REFORMED A SEPARATE DISTRICT). TODAY, THIS SCHOOL, NOW BUDA ELEMEN-TARY, CONTINUES TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY AS AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITU-TION AND GATHERING PLACE, MORE THAN 100 YEARS AFTER IT FIRST OPENED. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Buda school system grew from the consolidation of several nineteenth-century country schools, beginning with Mary Adams's 1881 classroom beside the railroad tracks. Successive buildings rose and burned, and the present Mission-style schoolhouse of 1928 was built around the surviving walls of its predecessor, still visible in the auditorium. Over the twentieth century the school integrated its Mexican American and African American students and eventually merged into the Hays Consolidated district.
Why it matters
Its layered walls and long integration story make it a living record of how rural Texas communities pooled their schools and slowly dismantled segregation.
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Themes & tags
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