Mattie Trammel Schoolhouse
Henderson, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This house was built in 1892 by Charles M. Thompson and his wife, May Agatha Trammell, for May's mother, Martha (Mattie) Gibson Trammell, a certified teacher. In this building Mattie taught young men and women the rudiments of etiquette until 1910. It is an unusual architectural variant with a broad hipped roofscape interrupted by a large central hipped dormer. A kitchen, bath, bedroom, and porch were added by subsequent owners about 1912. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Charles M. Thompson and his wife May built this house in 1892 for May's mother, Martha "Mattie" Gibson Trammell, a certified teacher. Here Mattie schooled young men and women in the rudiments of etiquette until 1910, running a small private academy out of the home. Its unusual hipped roof crowned by a large central dormer marks it as an architectural curiosity, and later owners added rooms in the early twentieth century.
Why it matters
The schoolhouse honors the many nineteenth-century women who made teaching a respectable profession and shaped the manners and learning of their communities from their own front rooms.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Martha Gibson Trammell
- · Charles M. Thompson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Kilgore Public Library
Kilgore, TX
Kilgore's first public library opened in 1933, launched by two local women's clubs. Federal Depression-era programs made the permanent building possible — funded by the Public Works Administration and built with Works Progress Administration labor, it was completed in 1939 in a style modeled on the cottages of Normandy. It still serves the community it was built for.
First United Methodist Church of Henderson
Henderson, TX
Organized in 1842 by the Rev. Preston W. Hobbs during the days of the Republic of Texas, this congregation predates Rusk County itself. Its early ministers included the noted circuit rider William Craig and J. W. Fields, who helped found the Fowler Institute, a Methodist school, in 1850. Through more than a century it has anchored community service and leadership in Henderson.
Henderson City Cemetery
Henderson, TX
Believed to be Henderson's oldest, this cemetery took shape in the mid-1840s and holds soldiers from every U.S. war between the War of 1812 and Vietnam. More than half of it served the city's African American community, and among its graves lie Black merchants, a businessman, and a veterinarian, two Texas A&M University presidents, judges, legislators, and a sea captain—its once-segregating wrought-iron fence now removed. Shaded by magnolias and crepe myrtles, its Old South landscape reads like a directory of the town's whole history.
Clinton Lodge No. 23, A. F. & A. M.
Henderson, TX
Chartered in 1845, the year Texas joined the Union, Clinton Lodge No. 23 became a fixture of frontier Henderson, at first sharing a two-story building with the Methodist congregation and later housing public-school classes in its 1868 hall. As the town prospered the Masons moved to the Rankin Building on the Square and finally built their own home in 1934. Three of the lodge's members rose to serve as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas.