New Summerfield Public School

New Summerfield dates its start to July 29, 1895, when Caley Amos Summers gave land for a public school. That November he sold land near the school to F. F. Fullerton and Isaac Tipton for a mill and gin, and Tipton added a store. A post office opened in the store in 1897. The place was named for its location in Summers's field. By 1912 the school was counted among the best in the county. The post office closed in 1905 and reopened in 1938 as New Summerfield, because Castro County's Summerfield had gotten a post office first.

What the plaque says

New Summerfield Public School Public education in the Union Chapel community, which developed here at the junction of the old Tyler-Rusk and Jacksonville- Henderson roads, began in the 1850s. Early classes were held in the Union Chapel Church, an ecumenical worship facility and community center. A one-room schoolhouse was built in 1895, and after an U.S. post office was established in 1897 under the name Summerfield, the school name changed from Union Chapel School to Summerfield School. The post office closed in 1905. As new facilities were built, surrounding schools began to consolidate with the Summerfield School. A two-room structure built in 1906 was destroyed in a 1920 windstorm. It was replaced that year by a new brick building, the first brick structure in Summerfield. By 1929 the Summerfield Independent School District was formed. A new post office for the community was established in 1938. Because another Texas town was named Summerfield, this became New Summerfield. Throughout its history, the New Summerfield School has been the center of scholastic and social activities. It continues to serve as the focal point of the community. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 20 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.

More markers nearby

• Site of Griffin — 4.1 mi
• Emmaus — 4.2 mi
• Robert Graves Stadler — 4.3 mi
• Gallatin School — 7.2 mi