THE MARINE SCHOOL

Built: ca. 1872
Location: Northside, Fort Worth, Texas
Owners: Marine Creek ISD
Builder: The Marine Creek Community

This is a one-room, board-and-batten -schoolhouse furnished with handmade benches and a teacher’s desk. The “blackboards” are actually painted on the walls. Other than a few maps and a portrait of George Washington, there is little in way of decorations. This scarcity of materials and decorations was typical of rural education in 1800s Texas.

The Marine School is open to the public, but it is also the site of many of our special activities, including the very popular Pioneer School program. Built in 1872, the schoolhouse was originally located in Fort Worth’s Northside on Commerce Street. Throughout the 1880s, it served as the community’s only school. After a new elementary school was built in 1889, it was used as a community church. In 1904, it once again served as a school when 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 converted and used as residence throughout the early to mid 1900s. The school still retains some evidence of its use as a home.

In 1991, the City of Fort Worth condemned the weather beaten structure. But a group 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. On September 16, 2003, the Marine School was moved to its present location at Log Cabin Village. The relocation was a critical move in preservation of a historic structure and a Fort Worth landmark.