Atherton School

The Lometa schools that took in Atherton's pupils in 1942 had a history of their own. Lometa's first school, built in 1889, was chartered the next year as the Lometa Education Association College and ran under that name until 1909, when the town set up a public school in a new red brick building. By 1945, three years after the consolidation, Lometa had a cotton gin, five churches, fourteen retail stores, an auction barn and the Citizens State Bank, and it had been an incorporated town since about 1920.

What the plaque says

Atherton School The first educational facility in this area, a boarding school for boys, opened in the 1880s. It was housed in a two-story structure built on land owned by F. M. Farley. A local schoolteacher, Abbie Atherton, applied to the U.S. Government for a post office for the community in 1892. The post office was named Atherton, and Abbie Atherton served as first postmistress. Eventually, the community and the school also became known as Atherton. In addition to educational facilities, the school provided a meeting place for local church congregations and community activities. W. T. Nelson donated an acre of land at this site for the school in 1904. The school building was enlarged over the years as student attendance increased, and another acre of land was deeded to the school in 1918 by W. T. Nelson. Atherton school served families in a large rural area, with some students traveling as many as five miles to school each day. Atherton School continued to serve residents of this area until 1942, when it was consolidated with the Lometa School System. The school building was later moved to Lometa in 1956. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hancock Springs Park — 19 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Colorado Bend State Park — 23 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.

More markers nearby

• Moline School Site — 5.0 mi
• Adamsville — 6.3 mi
• United Presbyterian Church of Adamsville — 6.4 mi
• Townsen's Mill — 7.3 mi