Atlanta-Miller Grade School

Hardy Brothers of Texarkana began building the school in 1936, a one-story, six-room building paid for by the Works Progress Administration and finished in 120 days. The plan called for six large classrooms, restrooms, a teacher's lounge, an auditorium and administrative offices. A first-grade wing added later was demolished. After classes ended in the mid-1970s, the building housed the Atlanta Multi-Purpose Center, which the Living New Deal says ran until 1990, and then sat unmaintained until 2001. The nonprofit Atlanta Grade School Friends received its federal designation in 2003.

What the plaque says

Atlanta-Miller Grade School Public education in Atlanta dates to 1874. Prior to the civil rights era of the mid-20th century, separate schools served Anglo and African American students. The school at this site, known initially as Atlanta Grade School, was built for white students in 1936 with federal funding through the Works Progress Administration. Due to high enrollment, building additions were completed over the years. Known later as Miller Grade School, the facility was integrated in 1970 and remained in use as a public school until 1974. It was used for various services through the 1990s. A group of citizens concerned about its preservation purchased the building from the school district in 2001. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Atlanta State Park — 9.2 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.
• Museum of Regional History — 22 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.

More markers nearby

• Bessie Coleman — 0.2 mi
• Smyrna Baptist Church — 5.4 mi
• Cass County — 7.4 mi
• Douglassville Cemetery — 12 mi