We visited McDade, Texas for their annual Watermelon Festival. While in this small town of some four commercial buildings, all of which were closed long ago, we found the McDade Historical Museum. In addition to observing the Yegua Notch Cutters list of those who had been killed in the 1800’s, we learned of a nearby one room school still standing. More about the visit to McDade and the Historical Museum (great museum) on NQ99HQ.blogspot.com.
We found the school building in a bend of the road, the area named Knobb Springs. Yes, still on the county maps. The local church bought the school and its grounds, and the building is now used as a storeroom.
Here are some photos:
This first one is of the outside. On this side, there were all windows, and on the other side were two doors. It shows that it was up on piers and with a wooden floor.
Inside, the picture here shows their furnace. It appeared to be a grand old furnace, jacketed as was Carl School’s furnace, but smaller as the winters here are not so severe.
A local man whom we flagged down, told us all about this school and one part of the story was particularly interesting. The ceiling pattern of black smudges was created by using the soot from a oil lamp held just below the wood. Seems like a time consuming task for sure. They did get a uniform appearance , so some experience and skill was involved.