Site of Masonic Academy

Before it was an academy it was a log schoolhouse among the hickories. A county history of 1915 says Hickory Grove School went up in 1840 of cedar logs cut with a whip-saw, with a puncheon floor and puncheon benches but no desks. James Mitchell taught first, then the Rev. L. P. Rucker, then John Sayles. Ministers of every denomination preached in it before Brenham had churches. After the Masons took charge they renamed it and built a larger cedar house in 1848 or 1849.

What the plaque says

Site of Masonic Academy Replaced Hickory Grove School, organized 1840. Land was given to Graham Lodge No. 20, A.F. & A.M.; lodge built Masonic Academy in 1849, only school in the area. Texas Public School Act of 1875 caused academy to close, and property sale proceeds were given to Brenham public school. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 10 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 20 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Brenham Fire Department — 0.3 mi
• Brenham Normal and Industrial College — 0.4 mi
• First Baptist Church — 0.4 mi
• First Methodist Church — 0.4 mi