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On September 16, 2003 this one room, board and batten structure moved down the streets of Fort Worth to its present location at Log Cabin Village. The relocation was a critical move for the preservation of a historic structure and a Fort Worth landmark.
Known as the Marine Schoolhouse, it was originally located in Fort Worth’s North Side at 2000 N. Commerce Street. It was built in 1872 to serve the settlers’ children. Throughout the 1880s, it continued to be used as a schoolhouse.
After a new elementary school was built in 1889, the old school was used as a community church by various denominations. In 1904, it housed the four students enrolled in North Fort Worth High School.
When the community finally outgrew the little building in 1906, John Mulholland bought and moved it to 1309 Commerce Street, where it was used as a residence throughout the early 1900s.
In 1991, the City of Fort Worth condemned the weathered and beaten structure. But a group of preservation-minded individuals, known as the Friends of the Marine Schoolhouse, rescued it from certain destruction. On April 1993, the “Friends” moved the building to 601 Park Street, where it remained for ten years until it was donated to the City of Fort Worth for preservation at the Log Cabin Village. The Marine Schoolhouse stands today as Fort Worth’s oldest school still in existence.

Marine School Exhibit:

The School is sparsely furnished, much like a typical 1870s rural school in Texas. It contains the painted blackboards on the original walls, maps, hard wooden benches, a lectern for the teacher, and hooks and shelves for the children’s pails and coats. One corner displays the original 1870s flooring. Many architectural clues as to the schools fascinating history can be found throughout the box-construction building.

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