Center Point School

By the 1935-36 school year Center Point was, in the Handbook's account quoted by the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, one of the best schools in Camp County. Four buildings held ten classrooms, valued at $14,000. Nine of the ten teachers held at least a bachelor's degree, and the average salary topped that of every other county school, White or Black. The term ran 176 days; 279 students enrolled, 129 of them in high school. In 1897 the one-room school had been listed in bad condition and worth fifty dollars. The General Education Board gave $1,700 and Julius Rosenwald $5,750.

What the plaque says

Center Point School Center Point began as a Freedmen's community about 1865-70. The Willie Johnson family were the first settlers and were soon joined by other families. In 1899 G.W. Goulsby opened a one-room school, the first in the settlement; Pete Griffin was the first teacher. In 1916 a new five-room school was built. In later years campus additions, partly funded by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, included a teacherage, library, dormitories, cafeteria, and gymnasium. Students maintained a farm and garden and operated a cannery. Center Point School was closed in 1952. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Daingerfield State Park — 8.8 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 17 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.

More markers nearby

• Center Point Community — steps away
• Lafayette Cemetery — 4.5 mi
• Pleasant Grove Cemetery — 4.9 mi
• Bolton Cemetery — 6.2 mi