Lipscomb School

The school's town was built for a railroad that never came. J. W. Arthur opened his store and post office in 1886 expecting the Santa Fe, but the tracks went south of the townsite, and later efforts to bring a line to Lipscomb failed, as did a coal mine local businessmen tried in 1888 on a five-inch vein. Holding the county seat kept the town alive; the present courthouse dates from 1916. Lipscomb had about 200 people in 1910 and 1940 and forty-four in 2000, and the Handbook of Texas calls it the county's smallest town.

What the plaque says

Around 1886, the town of Lipscomb was established by J.H. Arthur who built a store and post office out of cottonwood logs. As more people moved to the area, the need for a school arose and, on July 16, 1887, a special meeting was called to organize a school district and build a schoolhouse in Lipscomb. The first school began in a church purchased by the Lipscomb school trustees in 1888. The building, formerly the Dunkard Church, was a small, one-room school. The school and church both utilized the building until a new two-story, four-room schoolhouse was built in 1908 to accommodate an increase in enrollment. In 1922, a fire believed to be caused from lightning destroyed the building. The school district trustees immediately began discussions about a new school. J.D. Stevens Construction Company began work on the school in 1922 and classes started in the fall of 1923. While the new brick school was being built, classes were held in the church and in two rooms of the courthouse. The new Lipscomb School included four classrooms, two bathrooms, a library, office and a large auditorium. The Lipscomb School had full enrollment with a high school and a grade school. Students participated in track, literary events, tennis, basketball and football. The last graduating class was in 1941 with six graduates. Students began to be transported by bus to nearby high schools and the Lipscomb School became a grade school. In 1975, as the population of the area declined, the school closed. The school is a testament to the value of education in this rural, farming community. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 22 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 22 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 23 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 23 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.

More markers nearby

• Lipscomb Union Church — steps away
• Higgins — 16 mi
• Will Rogers — 16 mi
• Follett United Methodist Church — 16 mi