Site of Mound Hill School
Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1889 residents of the Mound area formed their first school at a nearby Baptist church. By 1891 the Mound School District was organized and forty students were enrolled. The school moved in 1902 to the Live Oak Female Seminary located on the farm of Dr. R. L. Miller. The school moved again in 1930 to a more central location and was remodeled into a two-classroom building. In 1939 the Works Progress Administration started a hot lunch program costing five centers per meal. By 1949 the school had been consolidated twice more and purchased its first bus. Finally, in 1953 the Mound Hill School was consolidated with the Prairie Hill School District, and the school buildings formerly at this site were moved to the Prairie Hill community. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Residents of the Mound area started their first school in a Baptist church in 1889, and by 1891 the organized Mound School District enrolled forty students. Over the decades the school moved several times, took over a former female seminary building, and in 1939 added a Works Progress Administration hot-lunch program costing a nickel a meal. Successive consolidations ended in 1953, when Mound Hill merged with Prairie Hill and its buildings were moved away.
Why it matters
Its story mirrors the rise and gradual consolidation of the small rural schools that educated generations of the American countryside.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Baylor University on Windmill Hill
Independence, TX
Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, Baylor University soon spread from Academy Hill to a second campus here on Windmill Hill, where a nearby quarry yielded "superior building rock" for stone halls like Graves Hall and Tryon Hall. Under president Rufus Burleson the male department developed here through the 1850s and Civil War years, growing to at least eight buildings on a 40-acre campus. Facing declining enrollment, trustees merged with Waco University and abandoned the site by 1886; fire, neglect, and demolition erased the buildings, and the ground is now a commemorative park.
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor (1793-1873)
Independence, TX
R.E.B. Baylor, a Kentucky native who served in the War of 1812 and the Creek War, rose in law and politics before moving to Texas in 1839. He became a judge of the Republic of Texas Supreme Court and, after a religious conversion, helped found the Texas Baptist Education Society and worked with W.M. Tryon and J.G. Thomas to charter Baylor University in 1845. The university opened at Independence, where Baylor taught law without pay and served as a trustee before his death in 1873.
Brenham Normal and Industrial College
Brenham, TX
Brenham Normal and Industrial College grew out of a 1905 meeting of Black and white community leaders after educator Daniel Porter came seeking land for a school for African Americans, and it was legally established in 1906. Its board was led by A.L. Sledge, a former slave who had served in the Texas Legislature, and its inaugural class of ten swelled to 130 students by 1913. The college trained future schoolteachers alongside courses in trades, business, agriculture, and domestic arts before closing in 1927, though its theological department carried on.
Burton High School
Burton, TX
Burton's public schools opened in 1874, and by 1938 the town began work on its first dedicated high school. Funded by the federal Works Progress Administration and completed in 1940, the building—designed by architect Travis Broesche and built by local contractor Will Weeren—showcases a rustic International style with two-story blocks, a curved entrance wall, and native fieldstone veneer.