Education in Manchaca
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The community of Manchaca, named for a campsite of Tejano Army Officer Jose Antonio Menchaca. First received a post office in 1851. Early Educational Efforts included an 1870s subscription school in a one-room frame schoolhouse on Onion Creek. The first public school began in the early 1880s and was held in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Onion Creek and adjoining Live Oak Cemetery. This building was also known as "Old Rock Church," and Professor Alfred H. Decherd was the principal. The building of the International and Great Northern Railroad tracks through Manchaca in 1881 brought an influx of new settlers and increased economic activity. In 1883 a new public schoolhouse was built immediately east of this site. The one-story brick building with bell tower was expanded with a second story in the 1910s. Which added cafeteria and auditorium space. The school offered seven grades. And students went to nearby towns such as Buda for high school education. Separate schools for African American and Mexican American students operated east and northeast of this site, respectively, beginning early in the 20th century. The second story of the school was deemed unsafe in the 1950s and was removed, and a new wing of classrooms was added in 1957. Manchaca schools joined with Oak Hill in 1961 to form a rural high school district, and in the 1960s Manchaca schools became fully integrated. The Austin Independent School District annexed the Manchaca-Oak Hill District in 1967. Just west of the historic school site, in an area previously known as Dodson's Park, a new school, Jose Antonio Menchaca Elementary School, opened in 1976. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Schooling in the community of Manchaca began with an 1870s subscription school in a one-room frame building on Onion Creek and a public school held in the 'Old Rock Church' by the early 1880s. The 1881 arrival of the International and Great Northern Railroad drew new settlers, and in 1883 a brick schoolhouse with a bell tower rose east of this site, later gaining a second story, cafeteria, and auditorium. As across the segregated South, separate schools served African American and Mexican American children until the district integrated in the 1960s and was ultimately absorbed by Austin ISD.
Why it matters
It captures the whole arc of rural Texas public education, from frontier subscription schools through racial segregation to integration in a single community.
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Related people
- · Alfred H. Decherd
- · Jose Antonio Menchaca
Related events
- · Integration of Manchaca schools (1960s)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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