Gallatin School
Gallatin, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Three schools operated within the vicinity of Gallatin at various times, before the first school building was constructed in 1910. Due to high enrollment, the three-room building grew to five rooms within a year and required additional faculty. In the summer of 1917, the building burned and school was taught in local churches and Woodman Hall. In 1918, a two-story brick building was erected at the present site with three classrooms upstairs and three classrooms downstairs. In 1940-41, a stone gymnasium was built with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In 1945, the three upstairs rooms of the old building were torn down, and an auditorium, stage and six classrooms were added. An agricultural building was added in 1946, which was used as a G.I. School after World War II. It was later used by the Homemaking Department. In the summer of 1959, the Gallatin community voted to consolidate their school district with the Rusk Independent School District. Gallatin High School students were bused to Rusk High School. Following the consolidation, the Gallatin School building was used as one of the Rusk elementary schools, teaching the first eight grades. Gallatin School became a place of the past, but serves as a reminder of the community’s successful endeavor in providing an education to children of this area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Gallatin's first schoolhouse went up in 1910 and, swelled by high enrollment, grew from three rooms to five within a year. After fire destroyed the building in 1917, a two-story brick school rose on this site in 1918, later gaining a WPA-built stone gymnasium and, after World War II, an agricultural building that doubled as a G.I. School for returning veterans. When the community voted to consolidate with the Rusk district in 1959, the building carried on for years as a Rusk elementary school.
Why it matters
Gallatin School charts the life cycle of a country school — growth, fire, New Deal construction, and consolidation — that so many rural American communities shared.
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Themes & tags
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