Reinhardt Elementary School
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Reinhardt Elementary School traces its history to the 1880s, when a small frame schoolhouse was built on the farm of John Chenault to serve children of early settlers in this vicinity. After the Santa Fe Railroad built a line through the area and erected a depot about 1885, a town evolved and was named Reinhardt for Dallas merchant Isadore Reinhardt. Soon the town boasted two stores, a cotton gin, and a bank, and by 1900 a new frame school building was constructed near the rail line. Two teachers taught students in all grades. About 1910 a second frame building was erected on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, and in 1921 it was replaced by a two-story red brick school building. After the Casa Linda neighborhood was developed in the 1930s a larger Reinhardt Elementary School was built at this site in 1941. Reinhardt became a part of the Dallas School System in 1945 when the town of Reinhardt was annexed to the city of Dallas. Enlarged over the years to serve an ever-increasing enrollment, Reinhardt Elementary School continues to play an important role in Dallas education. It is considered the "Mother School" of Casa View Elementary and several other schools in the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This school's story began in the 1880s with a frame schoolhouse on John Chenault's farm. When the Santa Fe Railroad ran a line through and built a depot around 1885, a town grew up and took the name Reinhardt after a Dallas merchant, complete with stores, a gin, and a bank. The school moved and rebuilt across the decades — a brick building in 1921, a larger campus at this site in 1941 — and was folded into the Dallas system when the town was annexed in 1945.
Why it matters
Reinhardt Elementary traces how a railroad depot could conjure a whole community and how its schoolhouse endured long after the town was swallowed by the growing city of Dallas.
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Related people
- · Isadore Reinhardt
- · John Chenault
Themes & tags
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