Martindale School and Gymnasium

Nancy Martindale, who came from Mississippi in 1851, donated the townsite in 1855, and by her decree the town has stayed dry: property of anyone found gambling or selling liquor may revert to her family. In 1905 Martindale had two schools with four teachers for 184 White students and a one-teacher school for seventy-two Black students. By 1949 seed companies near the town supplied over 65 percent of the hybrid seed corn produced in Texas. The town peaked at about 600 people in 1957 and incorporated in 1982.

What the plaque says

Martindale School and Gymnasium Martindale's School and Gymnasium operated from 1921-1968 and served as a gathering spot for the entire community. Many recall fond and formative memories of "Old Martindale School," whose large size brought the town together in sharing culture through education and entertainment. Residents looked forward to events like carnivals, Miss Louise Lawson's music classes and fundraising events like faculty members playing basketball while riding donkeys. The growing population of students in the farming town required a suitable site for classrooms and school functions. The new building was designed by Austin architects C.H. Page & Bro. in mission revival style. Built in 1921, concrete was transported by horse and carriage from San Antonio to be mixed on site and finished with stucco. In 1939, during the Great Depression, the Wildcats gladly welcomed the construction of a gymnasium. Austin architects Driscoll and Gross (also known for Barton Springs Bathhouse and Deep Eddy Bathhouse in Austin) designed the building with hollow tile and roof trusses by Carnegie Steel. Construction was partially funded by the Federal New Deal agencies. The desegregation of 140 Hispanic students from a separate schoolhouse to join the main Martindale School occurred in 1948. There is no evidence or recollection of African American students attending Martindale School. Overall attendance declined as many residents flocked to urban areas in the 1960s. This caused depopulation and a contentious vote for the school to be merged with the San Marcos district in 1965. In the years after the school closed, the property served in various commercial and residential capacities. The site remains significant in the educational and cultural history of the community. (2019)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 6.1 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.
• Lockhart Courthouse Square — 11 mi
  A cotton-era courthouse town named the Barbecue Capital of Texas, built near the 1840 Plum Creek fight that followed the killing of Comanche leaders at peace talks.
• Gruene Historic District — 17 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 19 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.

More markers nearby

• Site of the First Town of San Marcos — 3.3 mi
• Don Felipe Roque de la Portilla — 3.3 mi
• McGehee Crossing — 3.6 mi
• Camp Clark, C.S.A. — 4.1 mi