Site of Reservation School
Mountain Home, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As settlement in Kerr County began to spread to outlying areas at the end of the 19th century, neighbors gradually formed schools in which to educate their children. The Reservation School began in 1907 as a one-room school and also housed a Baptist church congregation. It was relocated to this site in 1919 after Anton and Emma Esquell deeded a portion of their land for a school. A larger two-room building and outbuildings including horse stalls and a teacherage were erected to accommodate an increasing student population. In 1935 the Baptist congregation changed its name and moved to new facilities. The school continued in operation until 1939, when students were bussed to other area schools. Voters officially approved consolidation with Harper schools in neighboring Gillespie County in 1941. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As Kerr County settlers spread into its outlying reaches around 1900, neighbors banded together to school their children. The Reservation School opened in 1907 as a one-room building that doubled as a Baptist meeting place, and after Anton and Emma Esquell deeded land in 1919 it grew to two rooms with outbuildings for an expanding student body. It taught local children until 1939, when they were bused elsewhere and the district voted to consolidate with Harper schools.
Why it matters
Small rural schools like this one were the backbone of education across the Texas Hill Country before consolidation swept them away in the mid-20th century.
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Related people
- · Anton Esquell
- · Emma Esquell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Harper Presbyterian Church
Harper, TX
Founded in 1881 as the Barnett Spring Presbyterian Church, this Hill Country congregation began in a schoolhouse before moving to Harper in 1901, where members raised a simple frame church on donated land. A bell was hung in 1903, and over the decades the building did double duty—housing the Harper School in 1906 and again in the 1940s and welcoming other denominations to worship.
Harper Independent School District
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Harper's schoolhouse story begins in 1884, when a handful of settlers organized classes for a growing Hill Country community and raised a one-room frame school on donated land the next year. Voters formalized the Harper Independent School District in 1906 and put up a limestone building, then weathered a decade of budget shortfalls that repeatedly cut the school year short. Through consolidations, WPA-built additions in the early 1940s, and homemade six-man football on cleared pasture, the district outlasted dozens of rural neighbors to become one of only three left in Gillespie County.
First Baptist Church of Harper
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