Site of Henry T. Scott School

Scott's training school has a story of its own. Prairie View began in 1876 as Alta Vista Agricultural College, created under the new state constitution's provision for a separate college for Black students, and enrolled its first eight young men on March 11, 1878. The farm curriculum drew few students, so in 1879 the Legislature made it a normal institute to train Black teachers, and in 1899 it took the name on this plaque, Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College. For decades it staffed segregated schools across Texas, Beaumont and Woodville among them.

What the plaque says

Site of Henry T. Scott School Early African American citizens of Woodville educated their children in local churches and Masonic halls well into the twentieth century. Efforts to develop a better public school system for the students began with the dynamic leadership of educator Henry T. Scott. A native of Tyler County, Scott trained at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College and taught in Beaumont before moving to Woodville as a teacher in 1910. Here, he worked to raise funds for a new school. Thanks to his vision and perseverance, a six-room school named for him opened on Elm Street (now Martin Luther King Drive) in 1934, only two years before his death. Scott School experienced its greatest early growth under John K. Canada, who became principal in 1947. He set high standards for the students and the development of school curriculum, and under his leadership the student body increased from fewer than 100 students to more than 500. As a result of the growth and the introduction of new programs, Canada worked with Superintendent B.H. McGuire and district officials to plan for a larger campus at this site, purchased in 1959. The new Scott School opened with the beginning of the academic school year in 1961. Henry T. Scott School developed as an important institution in Woodville, and its graduates included many accomplished in their chosen professions and prominent in community activities. The school closed in the late 1960s as a result of integration, and the main building burned in 1980. Today, an active alumni association helps preserve the memories of Scott School and its namesake, Henry T. Scott, both revered in the history of Tyler County. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Martin Dies, Jr. State Park — 14 mi
  A 705-acre state park on Steinhagen Reservoir at the meeting of the Neches and Angelina rivers, with about 14 miles of paddling trails through sloughs and more than 200 campsites.
• Big Thicket National Preserve — 22 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.

More markers nearby

• Original Site of Bethel Baptist Church — 0.4 mi
• Home of James Edward Wheat — 0.4 mi
• Lt. Col. Philip A. Work — 0.5 mi
• Tyler County — 0.5 mi