Miss Rogers' Music Room
Mexia, Limestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built opposite public school, for Laura T. Rogers, who (1880-1920) taught piano and choral music from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., 6 days a week, 8 months in year. Had 4 pianos used all day; 8 pupils often played in union. Auditorium, with overflow seating in yard, staged recitals and dramas. A church organist-choir director 35 years, Miss Rogers kindled cultural interests in pupils of two generations. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the small Central Texas town of Mexia, Laura T. Rogers ran an extraordinary music school directly across from the public school for four decades beginning in 1880. From dawn to dusk, six days a week, she drilled generations of children on four pianos at once, sometimes eight students playing together, and staged recitals and dramas that spilled into the yard. As a longtime church organist and choir director, she made music a fixture of community life in an era when small towns built their culture themselves.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of the private music teachers who carried the arts into rural America, shaping the cultural life of towns that had little else in the way of formal instruction.
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Related people
- · Laura T. Rogers
Themes & tags
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