Eanes School and Chapel
West Lake Hills, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A log cabin built on property of Robert Eanes (1805-95) in 1872 was the first Eanes school. In 1874 the school was moved to a one-room frame structure on this adjacent 2-acre tract given by William and Sophia Teague. Itinerant ministers conducted worship services in the schoolhouse, and a community cemetery was located near by. Eanes Chapel, organized in 1923 by University Presbyterian Church in Austin, erected a stone building in 1928. It was purchased in 1956 for classrooms. The Eanes Independent School District, created in 1958, is now (1975) a modern educational complex with over 1,800 students. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Education in the hill country west of Austin began humbly: a log cabin raised on Robert Eanes's land in 1872, then a one-room frame schoolhouse on land donated by William and Sophia Teague. Circuit-riding ministers preached in the schoolroom and a community cemetery grew up nearby, while a 1928 stone chapel was later folded into the school's use. The Eanes name endured into the modern Eanes Independent School District, which by 1975 served over 1,800 students.
Why it matters
It shows the familiar American pattern by which a single frontier schoolhouse becomes the seed of a lasting public school district and community identity.
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Related people
- · Robert Eanes
- · William Teague
- · Sophia Teague
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Eanes-Marshall Ranch
Austin, TX
Alexander Eanes moved from Mississippi to Texas in 1845 and had acquired this Travis County ranch by 1857, later selling it to his brother Robert, who came west after the Civil War. A log cabin on the ranch became the first Eanes school, and the surrounding community took the family name as well. In 1883 the ranch passed to Robert's son-in-law, Hudson Boatner Marshall, who moved the ranch house to a site by the nearby creek.
Robert Eanes
Austin, TX
South Carolina–born Robert Eanes brought his family to Travis County in 1872, following a brother who had settled the area decades earlier. Buying a ranch from that brother, he built the first school in the neighborhood, and both the community and the school came to bear the Eanes name. He was laid to rest here in 1895 beside his wife, Eliza.
Esperanza School Building
Austin, TX
Built in 1866 on Richard McKenzie's land, this log cabin served as the Esperanza School, one of Travis County's earliest one-room schoolhouses, teaching neighboring farm children before public education existed. When a larger Esperanza School replaced it in 1893, the original structure was put to other uses.
Andrew Jackson Zilker
Austin, TX
Andrew Jackson Zilker arrived in Austin penniless in 1876 and rose to become a businessman and bank director in the booming capital of a young state. Shaped by watching laborers toil along the Ohio River, he championed "practical" education, and when he sold 366 acres including Barton Springs to the city, he steered the payments to the local schools. His gifts of parkland became Zilker Park, still Austin's most beloved green space.