St. Mary's School
West, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
St. Mary's Catholic Church was officially organized in West in 1892. Because parents wanted a Catholic education for their children, Father F. G. Sebik wrote to Reverend Mother Florence, Superior General of the Sisters of Divine Providence, headquartered in Castroville. She soon sent Sister M. Pelagia and three other nuns to teach West's 132 Catholic children. The first school structure included three classrooms and living quarters for the sisters. As enrollment grew the Sisters began to accept boarding students. Interest was so high that by 1909 they were forced to turn boarders away. A new brick schoolhouse with six classrooms and an auditorium erected in 1917 accommodated more students. By 1928 seven nuns were teaching at the school. Facilities continued to change as enrollment increased and more sisters arrived. Extracurricular programs with the West public schools ensured that St. Mary's students participated in a variety of activities. The school was fully accredited by the Texas Catholic Conference in 1967. With the economic and social changes of the second half of the 20th century, the number of Sisters able to teach for a stipend instead of a salary decreased and the cost of a Catholic education increased. Enrollment gradually declined over the next decades. The last Sister of Divine Providence left the school in 1984, leaving a legacy of the Catholic educational tradition in West. Parent-teacher initiatives and development ensured the survival of St. Mary's, which continues to serve the community. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After St. Mary's Catholic parish organized in West in 1892, families eager for a Catholic education prompted Father Sebik to call on the Sisters of Divine Providence in Castroville. Sister Pelagia and three fellow nuns arrived to teach the town's 132 Catholic children, and demand grew so quickly that the school soon took boarders and outgrew its first building. Staffed by the sisters for nearly a century, St. Mary's survived their departure in 1984 through parent and community support and still serves the town.
Why it matters
Parochial schools built by teaching sisters carried education and immigrant Catholic tradition into small-town Texas, shaping communities for generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Father F. G. Sebik
- · Sister M. Pelagia
- · Mother Florence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lebanon United Methodist Church
Aquilla, TX
In October 1872, landowners deeded four acres in Hill County to a group of Methodist trustees, and tradition holds that pastor Isaac Pierce Lowery proposed the congregation's biblical name of Lebanon the following year. The first church building burned in the early 1880s, prompting members to move to the present site. An early school on the church grounds served the surrounding community well into the twentieth century.
Frazierville Community and School
Hillsboro, TX
A family settled a land grant on this Hill County ground in 1852, adding neighboring acreage that gave them timber and spring water. In 1883 a son donated part of the land for a schoolhouse that doubled as a nondenominational church, and the settlement that gathered around it took the family name. Their descendants held the land for well over a century.
Peabody School
Hillsboro, TX
In 1885 Hillsboro issued a bond to build a school for African American children in the Black neighborhood known as Freetown, naming it for George Peabody, whose fund famously aided Southern education after the Civil War. A brick building replaced the original frame structure in 1919, and the school moved to this site in 1950. Its last class graduated in 1966 as full integration approached; though the building burned in 2005, Peabody School remains a point of community pride.
Salem Lutheran Church
Malone, TX
This congregation grew from the wave of German immigrants who first settled Washington County and began pushing into Hill County in the 1880s. In June 1886, fifteen families organized the Salem Lutheran Congregation, worshipping in homes while their first building rose. The Salem community it served became a forerunner of nearby Malone.