Hovey School
Fort Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
About 1910 a railroad stop named Hovey was established about 40 miles west of here on the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railroad. By 1913 Hovey contained a depot, post office/general store, and several stock shipping pens. Hovey school was established in 1913. The first school building burned and in 1916 this schoolhouse was erected in Hovey. It served as a one-teacher seven-grade school for Anglo and Hispanic students of the rural ranch community of Hovey. After the school closed in 1938 the building served as a community center. It was moved here in 1987. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1910 the railroad stop of Hovey sprang up along the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient line, and within a few years it had a depot, a store, shipping pens, and a school. After the first schoolhouse burned, this 1916 building served as a one-teacher, seven-grade school for the Anglo and Hispanic children of the surrounding ranch country until it closed in 1938. It later became a community center and was moved to Fort Stockton in 1987.
Why it matters
The one-room rural school was the beating heart of countless frontier ranch communities, and its survival preserves a vanishing model of American education on the sparsely settled land.
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