Sardis School
Center, Shelby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Sardis School Students in this area attended the Hughes School (2.1 mi. Ene) until 1917. That year, the W.R. Pickering Lumber Co. donated four acres to trustees C.L. Fowler, R.C. Hughes and R.C. Squyres for Sardis School No. 37. A schoolhouse was completed at this site by the end of the summer. The white frame structure included four rooms and housed grades 1-9. Students participated in athletics, including baseball, basketball and volleyball, and competed against other area schools. In 1956, the district closed the school, and students began traveling to campuses in nearby Center. The schoolhouse was torn down in the 1960s, but lessons learned here remain in the memories of area residents. (2003)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the W.R. Pickering Lumber Co. donated four acres in 1917, the community of Sardis got a school of its own, sparing children the long trip to Hughes School. The white frame building held four rooms and grades one through nine, and its students played baseball, basketball, and volleyball against neighboring towns. Consolidation sent pupils to Center in 1956, and the schoolhouse was razed in the 1960s—but the education it gave lived on in local memory.
Why it matters
Sardis School is a small monument to the one- and two-room country schools that anchored rural America before mid-century consolidation swept most of them away.
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Related people
- · C.L. Fowler
- · R.C. Hughes
- · R.C. Squyres
Themes & tags
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