Details for Pleasant Hill School

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5507016678

Data

Marker Number 16678
Atlas Number 5507016678
Marker Title Pleasant Hill School
Index Entry Pleasant Hill School
Address 2722 FM 1399
City Linden
County Cass
UTM Zone 15
UTM Easting 369569
UTM Northing 3658030
Subject Codes African American topics; schools; churches; Baptist denomination; Craftsman (architectural style); segregation
Marker Year 2010
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Yes
Marker Location Pleasant Hill Center, FM 1399, E side 0.1 mi. N of CR 1244, 2.9 mi. NW of SH 8. School is 150 feet E of the marker.
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size 27" x 42"
Marker Text Pleasant Hill is one of the oldest African-American communities in Texas. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1843. Prominent church members donated this land beside the Old Monterey Road, and a frame church and two-story schoolhouse were built here. In 1925, citizens built this school with help from the Julius Rosenwald School building program, established to improve education for African Americans in the rural South. The school cost $3450, with the Rosenwald fund matching the $700 contribution of African American citizens. It was built per Rosenwald plan 20-A, from materials salvaged from the previous schoolhouse plus new materials. The plan features an “industrial room” in the central bay and two classrooms originally separated by a movable partition. The school opened with about seventy students and two teachers, Della Lindsay Warren and Professor R. S. Guise. Approximately 1,200 students attended school up to eighth grade at Pleasant Hill; those who wished to complete high school attended Fairview School near Linden. In 1964, with attendance around 26, the school closed and the students were transferred to Linden. The one-story side-gable schoolhouse features a symmetrical front elevation with a central projecting gable flanked by two front doors. Craftsman-style detailing on the wood frame building includes wide overhangs, exposed rafter tails and knee braces. Large 9/9 and 6/6 light windows dominate the front and rear facades. The historic grounds also include a playground with swing set, merry-go-round and slide added during the Great Depression and a concrete storm shelter built in the 1950s. Twenty-three Rosenwald schools were built in Cass County, but today Pleasant Hill School – restored ca. 2009 and now a community center – is the only one remaining. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2010

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