Novohrad School

A town in Bohemia lent Novohrad its name, and two businesses made the place. In 1880 Frank Migl built a store and cotton gin on land along the old La Bahia Road near Big Rocky Creek, and J. R. Jasek, formerly a botanist for the government of Bohemia, ran a nursery. A post office operated in the store from 1894 to 1905. By 1882 the Bohemian and German children had separate schools, and the German one, Grieve, later merged with Praha in Fayette County. In 1950 Novohrad had two stores, a gin and a lodge hall.

What the plaque says

Novohrad School For decades, Novohrad School provided educational opportunities for children living in the rural Bohemian community of Novohrad. By the 1880s, Novohrad, which took its name from a town in Bohemia, was a growing settlement consisting of a store, cotton gin, nursery and residences. In 1882, local residents established Novohrad School along with the nearby Grieve School, built for children of German families. Students attended class in a one-room building on property sold by Anna and Wenzel Wagner, Sr. to Kasper Holub, president of the board of trustees. Anna Neigebauer and Emma and Jim Rab later sold additional acreage to the school. A two-room structure that included a stage used for plays (including Czech productions performed by adults), graduation ceremonies and other activities replaced the first school in 1900. The new building housed up to ten grades, although not every grade was represented each year. Peak enrollment was 81 students; classes included geography, history, math, English, reading, spelling and physical education. Some pupils learned to read and write in the Czech language in extracurricular tutoring. The school also had volleyball, basketball and baseball teams. Two former students, George Pavlicek and Adolph Rab, lost their lives in military service during World War II. In 1953, Novohrad School closed and most students began attending classes in the Moulton Independent School District. Many of the former students achieved professional success due in part to their education at this school. Today, the school is remembered as a place of learning form children of Czech descent living in the rural Novohrad community. (2007)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Mary's Church of the Assumption (Praha) — 3.9 mi
  The mother parish of the Czech settlements around Flatonia, a stone-fronted church of 1895 whose ceiling Gottfried Flury turned into a turquoise garden, with an August 15 feast since 1855.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 11 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.
• Spoetzl Brewery — 14 mi
  The brewery a Czech and German railroad town started in a tin shed in 1909, run through Prohibition by a Bavarian who had brewed in Cairo, and then by his daughter.
• Lavaca County Courthouse — 14 mi
  A limestone Romanesque courthouse of 1897-99 on the square of a town founded by a widow trader, in a county seat that once printed the Socialist Party's state paper.

More markers nearby

• Cotton Grove Dance Floor and Store — 3.8 mi
• Moulton's World War II Observation Tower — 4.8 mi
• Moulton — 5.1 mi
• Moravia General Store — 5.3 mi