Oakalla
Oakalla, Burnet County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first settlers in this rich farm and ranch land arrived in the 1850s. Oakalla Post Office was established May 19, 1879. Schools were private until a cooperative was built which provided classrooms on the second floor. Oakalla boasted a doctor, drugstore, blacksmith shop, and a cotton gin by 1881. The two-acre school site was deeded in 1890. Worship was held in the schoolhouse and in brush arbors until 1908 when Oakalla Baptist Church erected a meetinghouse. The school consolidated in 1958 with Lampasas and the building became a community center.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The first settlers reached this rich farm and ranch country in the 1850s, and by 1881 the community of Oakalla boasted a doctor, a drugstore, a blacksmith, and a cotton gin. Schooling began privately and moved into a cooperative building whose second floor doubled as a classroom, while worship was held in the schoolhouse and open-air brush arbors until the Baptist congregation raised its own meetinghouse in 1908. The school consolidated with Lampasas in 1958, and its building carried on as a community center.
Why it matters
Oakalla is a snapshot of the self-reliant rural communities that dotted central Texas, where a single building often served as school, church, and civic hall.
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Themes & tags
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