Doyle Colored School
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Doyle School began as an African American school in 1909. The African American community raised $53 to move the frame building of the former school for white students after a new one was built. The land where the building was moved was donated by Anna W. Doyle, who was the head teacher for nearly two decades. The one-room schoolhouse had no utilities until running water was installed in 1920 and electric lights were installed in 1923. The black population in Kerrville was small and only 25 students from five north Kerrville families attended. The school expanded to include three classrooms, an auditorium, two bathrooms and a storage area. There was still no formal name for the school at the time. As enrollment grew to about 75 students in 1940, husband and wife B.T. and Itasco Wilson and Miss l.E. Cheeks were hired as teachers. B.T. (Prof) Wilson was revered in the community for his dedication to the students of Doyle. It was Wilson who decided that the school should be named after Anna W. Doyle. The school had high enough enrollment for athletic teams, cheerleaders, a choir and a marching band. Classes included sports, theater, music and home economics, alongside traditional academic subjects. Integration of the Kerrville schools in 1964 reduced the school to a one-year program for elementary students. After one year, all African American students were integrated. In 1970, Doyle became a kindergarten campus under the direction of Starkey Elementary School Principal, Fred H. Tally, and Head Teacher, Jean Tally. B.T. Wilson continued to positively influence students in his new position and the sixth grade school was eventually named for him. The Doyle School building was sold to a non-profit neighborhood association and remains open as a community center. (2015)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Doyle School opened in 1909 when Kerrville's small African American community pooled $53 to move a discarded frame schoolhouse onto land donated by teacher Anna W. Doyle. Under revered principal B.T. "Prof" Wilson—who named the school for Doyle—it grew from a one-room building with no utilities into a campus with an auditorium, band, choir, and athletic teams. When Kerrville integrated in 1964, its Black students moved into the town's schools, and the building endures today as a community center.
Why it matters
Built and sustained by the very families it served, Doyle stands for the determination of Black communities to secure education for their children within—and despite—the segregated South.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Doyle School opened in 1909, in the era of Jim Crow segregation that shaped the American South and much of Texas for the first half of the twentieth century. Under the doctrine of separate but equal, Black and white children were educated apart — but the promise of equality was hollow. White schools received the public investment; Black schools were too often left to make do with what their own communities could scrape together.
Kerrville, in the Hill Country of Kerr County, had only a small Black population, concentrated in a handful of families in the north part of town. For such a community, securing an education for its children meant relying on its own resources, its own labor, and its own determination in the face of a system designed to shortchange it.
This was the Progressive Era, a time when Americans elsewhere were expanding public schooling and modernizing institutions. For Kerrville's Black families, progress came slower and had to be built by hand — quite literally, as the school's origins show.
People & events
The story begins with an act of collective sacrifice. In 1909, the African American community raised $53 — a significant sum for a small group of families — to move the discarded frame building of a former white school after a new one had been built for white students. The land where the building was relocated was donated by Anna W. Doyle, who then served as head teacher for nearly two decades.
The early schoolhouse was spare. It had no utilities at all until running water arrived in 1920 and electric lights in 1923. With only about twenty-five students from five north Kerrville families, it was small, but it grew — expanding to include three classrooms, an auditorium, two bathrooms, and a storage area, even though it still had no formal name.
That changed as enrollment climbed to around seventy-five students by 1940, when husband and wife B.T. and Itasco Wilson and Miss L.E. Cheeks joined as teachers. B.T. Wilson — known as 'Prof' — was revered for his devotion to his students, and it was he who decided the school should be named for Anna W. Doyle. Under his leadership the school gained athletic teams, cheerleaders, a choir, and a marching band, and offered sports, theater, music, and home economics alongside traditional academics. When Kerrville integrated its schools in 1964, Doyle was reduced to a one-year elementary program, and after that year its Black students were fully integrated. In 1970 the building became a kindergarten campus, and Wilson continued to shape young lives — a sixth-grade school was later named in his honor. The building itself endures today as a community center.
Its place in the American story
Doyle School stands for one of the most powerful themes in African American history: the extraordinary lengths to which Black communities went to secure education for their children within, and despite, a segregated society. The image of families pooling fifty-three dollars to move a building that white students had cast aside is the whole national story in miniature — the underfunding, and the refusal to be defeated by it.
Across the South, Black schools like this one were sustained by community effort and by teachers who became pillars of their neighborhoods. Figures like B.T. 'Prof' Wilson embodied a tradition in which the schoolteacher was far more than an instructor — he was a leader, a mentor, and a source of pride, giving students a full and dignified education complete with music, sports, and the arts.
The school's arc also traces the nation's long journey toward integration. When Kerrville integrated in 1964, it was part of the wave of change that followed the civil rights movement and the dismantling of legal segregation. That the building survives as a community center — and that a later school was named for Wilson — shows how such places remain touchstones of memory and identity long after their original doors closed.
If you visit
This is a place to visit with respect and with imagination. Picture the modest frame building that a small community moved and made its own in 1909, and remember that for years it had no running water and no electric light — only the determination of the families who kept it going. The schoolhouse you're looking at grew from a single room into a campus with an auditorium and a band, one improvement at a time.
Because the building endures today as a community center, it carries a rare kind of continuity: the same walls that educated Kerrville's Black children now still gather the neighborhood together. Let that continuity sink in as you take in the site — this is living history, not a ruin.
For travelers interested in the African American story and the history of education in the South, Doyle is a meaningful stop. Carry with you the names that matter here — Anna W. Doyle, who gave the land and taught for decades, and B.T. 'Prof' Wilson, so beloved that his students' school was later named for him. Their legacy is the reason this place is worth pausing to honor.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Anna W. Doyle
- · B.T. Wilson
Themes & tags
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