White Oak Schoolhouse

In Gillespie County, Texas, there were once a number of one-room schoolhouses scattered throughout the county to accommodate where the settlers’ children lived.  Multiple grades were taught in each schoolhouse.  The county still has a number of these schoolhouses still in existence, and while visiting the Fredericksburg area, we managed to find and visit each of these schoolhouses.  Our first stop was in Pioneer Museum, and was the White Oak Schoolhouse.

Entry – White Oak School

The entry to this schoolhouse was in a corner, a bit different from the other schoolhouses we saw.  White Oak School was built around 1920, and was used as a school until about 1949.

One Room Schoolhouse

This is a replica of what the school looked like while being used.  I noticed the different size desks – some look like they would seat 2 children…..or one larger child.  I’m not certain which is the correct answer!  The displays around the perimeter of the school room hold artifacts from the school when it was being used.

English and German Taught

As Fredericksburg was settled by immigrants from Germany, both English and German were taught in the school.  This practice continued until World War II broke out.  From that point on, only English was taught.

Students’ View of Lesson Plan

Here’s a view of the teacher’s desk and the lesson for the day on the blackboard.  When some of the schools were initially explored, some blackboards hidden behind walls still had their lesson plans on them!

Teacher’s School Bell

Was this the actual school bell the teacher would ring to call students into class?  Probably not – still, I’ll bet it looked something like this bell!

Report Card – White Oak School

Yes, this is an actual report card of a student attending the White Oak School!  In fact, as we were in the schoolhouse, there was an audio presentation going on to provide some history of the school.  The voice speaking said this report card was his!  If you look closely, you can see this report card was for the school year ending 1947.  As I said in the beginning of this post, the last year the school operated was the school year ending 1949, due to a lack of students.

Enjoy!