Pease School

Elisha M. Pease, the school's namesake, was governor from 1853 to 1857. He tried to persuade the legislature to create a system of public education and a state university, an effort that proved largely premature, but his administration established the permanent school fund. His settlement of the state's public debt made money available for a hospital for the mentally ill and for schools for the deaf and the blind, all of which he had recommended. He also supervised building the Governor's Mansion, the General Land Office and a new Capitol, and left the state in excellent financial condition.

What the plaque says

Pease School This is one of the oldest school buildings in Texas erected from public funds; on university block set aside for school purposes by Republic of Texas in 1839. This school was opened in 1876; it was named for Gov. Elisha M. Pease (1812-1883), a leader in legislation that laid groundwork for support of public education in Texas. Rooms at center of building were erected in 1876; restored after a fire in 1892. Additions were made in 1916 and 1926, and remodeling was done in 1949. Thousands of children have received basic education within walls of this historic school. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — 0.4 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.6 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Harry Ransom Center — 0.7 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 1.1 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.

More markers nearby

• Third Site for Travis County Government — 0.2 mi
• Zachary Taylor Fulmore — 0.2 mi
• Wooldridge Square — 0.3 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Austin — 0.3 mi