School House
The earliest settlers of the area wanted their children to have the benefits of education and with limited transportation; rural school houses dotted the countryside. Children may have walked, rode a horse, or even came in buggies to attend school in these structures. Some were wooden with one or two rooms and some were even brick, some were painted while others remained unpainted and a few were two-story structures and at least one was three stories. They were heated with wood or coal-burning stoves and the earlier ones had no electricity and they all used an outhouse. Cloakrooms or pegs on the wall provided a place to hang your hat or coat and all children had to bring their lunch to school. One teacher had to instruct different grade levels all contained within one room.
Most students in the 19th and early 20th centuries attended a one-room schoolhouse where a single teacher taught multiple grades all at the same time. The teacher’s desk sits on a platform and students sit at wooden desks with ink wells. The schoolhouse contains early Texas textbooks, a water bucket and ladle, and a 45 star U.S. flag to represent the 45 states of the Union in 1902—the year Frisco was founded.
The Frisco Independent School District was established in 1905, but these rural schools continued to provide the educational needs of the children into the 1960s. The Hamilton School in Frisco served the needs of the black children until 1964 when FISD was desegregated.
This replica of a rural school house provides a glimpse of how children were taught and learned in this area from about 1850 through 1964.
If you would like to schedule a tour that includes a 30-minute lesson in the school house, please contact the Frisco Heritage Museum.