Carroll School
Southlake, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
DOVE SCHOOL BEGAN NEARBY IN 1847 AS ONE OF THE EARLIEST SCHOOLS IN TARRANT COUNTY. WHITE’S CHAPEL, SAMS, AND EASTER (LATER UNION) SCHOOLS ALSO SERVED THE AREA IN THE LATE 1800s. IN 1917, TARRANT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COMBINED THE SCHOOLS TO FORM COMMON SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 99, LATER NAMED FOR COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION B. E. CARROLL. STUDENTS CONTINUED TO ATTEND ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS ACROSS THE DISTRICT. IN MAY 1919, RESIDENTS OF THE DISTRICT PETITIONED THE COMMISSIONERS COURT TO HOLD A PROPERTY TAX ELECTION FOR $7500 IN CONSTRUCTION BONDS FOR A CENTRALLY LOCATED SCHOOL. IN JUNE VOTERS CAST THEIR BALLOTS AT WHITE’S CHAPEL METHODIST CHURCH; THE VOTE WAS 29 FOR AND 25 AGAINST. E. E. HIGGINS, J. R. SHIVERS AND B. F. GRIFFIN, THE FIRST SCHOOL TRUSTEES, PAID $500 FOR A FIVE ACRE HILLTOP PARCEL, AND FRANK ESTILL BUILT A THREE-ROOM ONE-STORY BRICK SCHOOLHOUSE. THE SCHOOL OPENED WITH THREE TEACHERS TO INSTRUCT 97 STUDENTS IN NINE GRADES. A WOOD-FRAMED CLASSROOM FOR LOWER GRADES AND A LUNCHROOM WERE BUILT BEHIND THE SCHOOL. A TEACHERAGE STOOD NEARBY. ABOUT 1950, THE SCHOOLHOUSE EXPANDED WITH THREE ADDITIONAL ROOMS. IN 1956, CARROLL SCHOOL BECAME THE BIRTHPLACE OF SOUTHLAKE AS THE POLLING PLACE WHERE RESIDENTS VOTED TO INCORPORATE. FOR SEVERAL YEARS, THE SCHOOL ALSO SERVED AS TOWN HALL. IN 1959, VOTERS CREATED CARROLL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. CARROLL SCHOOL REMAINED AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UNTIL 1970 BEFORE BECOMING CLASSROOMS AND OFFICE SPACE UNTIL CLOSING IN 2001. CARROLL SCHOOL, THE FIRST PUBLIC BUILDING IN THIS ONCE-RURAL SETTLEMENT, EMBODIES THE TRADITIONS AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF A GROWING PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CITY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The lineage of this campus reaches back to Dove School in 1847, one of the earliest in Tarrant County, before several one-room schools merged in 1917 into a district named for county superintendent B. E. Carroll. A narrowly approved 1919 bond built the first central brick schoolhouse on a five-acre hilltop, opening with three teachers and 97 students. In 1956 residents cast the votes here that incorporated Southlake, and the building served for years as its town hall.
Why it matters
More than a school, this hilltop was the civic cradle where a rural crossroads became the city of Southlake.
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Related people
- · B. E. Carroll
- · Frank Estill
Themes & tags
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