Lone Grove School
Llano, Llano County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Lone Grove School Among the rural schools in early Llano County were Lone Grove, Flat Rock, Little Llano, McNutt and Spice Wood. These rural schools also served their communities as gathering places. Located on a major route between Llano and Burnet, Lone Grove grew, and when officials divided the county into districts in 1884, it became district number two. This schoolhouse dates to 1910, on a site donated by D.P. Speck and J.L. Templeton. In 1937, Lone Grove became one of two rural schools in the county to offer high school courses. Building additions served the growing population until consolidation with Llano schools in 1947. The building is now used as a gathering and polling place. (2002)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Among Llano County's early rural schools, Lone Grove sat on a main road between Llano and Burnet and grew important enough to become district number two when the county was divided in 1884. The surviving schoolhouse dates to 1910 and, in 1937, was one of only two county rural schools to offer high-school courses before consolidating with Llano in 1947.
Why it matters
Rural schoolhouses doubled as the meeting and voting places that organized frontier communities, and Lone Grove's continued use as a polling site keeps that civic role alive.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · D.P. Speck
- · J.L. Templeton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Llano Woman's Culture Club
Llano, TX
In 1901 music teacher Jennie Clopton gathered sixteen women to found a literary society that grew into the Woman's Culture Club, a civic force in Llano for decades. The club opened the town's first public library, funded scholarships, beautified public spaces, and coordinated a Works Progress Administration project to build a permanent library in 1938–39. It embodied the Progressive-era conviction that organized women could shape the life of a community.
Grace Episcopal Church
Llano, TX
The building began in 1881 as Llano Academy, a schooling venture that failed, before the West Texas Missionary District of the Episcopal Church bought it in 1883. Completed and opened for worship in 1889 under Bishop James Steptoe Johnston, it became Grace Episcopal Church. It was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965.
O'Henry School Building
Llano, TX
Completed in 1887 of native sandstone to serve Llano students living south of the river, this stately two-story schoolhouse was grand enough that locals dubbed it the "College Building." A granite addition followed in 1902, and the school took its name in honor of William Sydney Porter, the Texas writer known to the world as O. Henry. It held every grade until a separate high school opened in 1925.
Site of Old Behrns West Texas Normal and Business College
Cherokee, TX
Educator Francis Marion Behrns opened this college in 1895, and local citizens built a three-story hall of native blue marble along with a frame dormitory. Students studied mathematics, natural sciences, Latin, oratory, music, and painting, with strong emphasis on character. After the school closed in 1903 the buildings served Cherokee Junior College and public schools until fire destroyed the main hall in 1945.