Robinson School
Strawn vicinity, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1937, Guy U. Robinson led his neighbors to petition the county for a new common school district, in part to protest high school taxes in Strawn. Leo Ankenbauer sold two acres of land to school trustees, and craftsmen Bill Roberson and W. Proctor of Strawn completed this one-room, red brick schoolhouse in time for classes to begin in September 1937. Darker brick at the corners and around the windows and the door provide some ornament to the simple vernacular structure. In use only until 1943, when the number of pupils declined to two, Robinson School is a unique reminder of the county's rural educational history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1937 Guy U. Robinson rallied his neighbors to petition for a new common school district — partly in protest of Strawn's high school taxes. Leo Ankenbauer sold two acres, and local craftsmen finished this one-room red brick schoolhouse in time for classes that September, dressing its simple vernacular walls with darker brick at the corners and windows. It served only until 1943, when enrollment dwindled to just two pupils.
Why it matters
Robinson School is a vivid reminder of the small rural one-room schools — and the local tax politics behind them — that shaped early Texas education.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Guy U. Robinson
- · Leo Ankenbauer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mary Jane Gentry
Strawn, TX
Born in Boston in 1912, Mary Jane Gentry became an educator, author, and historian whose 1946 University of Texas thesis on the coal town of Thurber—written under Walter Prescott Webb—became a classic of Texas social history. She co-authored The Story of Texas, a seventh-grade textbook used statewide, and taught in schools and colleges from Thurber to Odessa. She died in Dallas in 1996.
First Christian Church
Palo Pinto, TX
Palo Pinto's oldest church building serves a congregation believed to be the first of any faith to worship here, organized in 1857 in the home of lay preacher Dr. Stephen S. Taylor. Members raised the sanctuary in 1882–83, and despite storm damage that same year it has stayed in continuous use — sometimes lending its walls to other faiths in their infancy. Among its early pastors were Addison and Randolph Clark, founders of what became Texas Christian University.
Bullock Cemetery
Ranger vicinity, TX
When infant Georgia A. Barnes was buried on William Nolen's land in 1878, a one-room schoolhouse already stood on the site. In 1886 Nolen donated two of his 160 acres to formally establish a school and cemetery for the settlement that became the Bullock community. The grounds were even leased for oil drilling in 1918, though the well came up dry. A cemetery association formed in the 1960s, and the burial ground still serves the area.
Wayland School
Breckenridge, TX
The Wayland Free School District formed around 1883 on land a fraternal order donated for a school and cemetery. A modern four-room brick-and-stucco schoolhouse rose in 1920 and anchored the community through its prosperous years. When wartime jobs in the cities drew families away, the school closed in 1941–42 and its pupils moved to Breckenridge, after which the building became a community center.