Site of Scranton Academy

Scranton's first families, the D. C. and H. B. Lanes and Joe and Aaron Brown, settled here in 1875, and by the 1880s residents had built a school and a gin. A post office came in 1891, with a Mr. Reydon as postmaster. In 1904, a year after the academy opened, the town had 150 people, an incorporated school district, and dry goods, hardware and grocery stores. The Scranton Reporter began publishing in 1911. From 1980 through 2000, the Handbook of Texas says, Scranton had forty people, no businesses and no post office.

What the plaque says

A private, coeducational school organized in 1903 to augment Scranton Public School (opened 1887). Scranton, a small farming-ranching community, was only 13 years old when citizens founded the academy, by public subscription. The school expanded rapidly, reaching an enrollment of 325 by 1910. At its peak all grade levels (then numbering 11) were taught. First president, O.C. Britton, presided 1903-1908. He was followed by W.W. Griffin (1909), S.P. Collins (1910-1911), and J.E. Temple Peters (1911-1915). Under Peters, courses were standardized, a science program begun, and a modern laboratory and library added. Later presidents were J.W. Hawkins (1916), and L.E. Ratten (1917). Among early trustees were G.W. Bailey, F.G. Boyd, A.P. Brown, W.D. Clinton, W.T. Gattis, E.B. Lane, J.J. Ray, W.T. Rutherford, A.M. Sprawls, J.R. Sprawls, and John L. Woods. In addition to basic subjects, school offered a teacher training program. Physical plant consisted of a large classroom building, a 500-seat auditorium, two dormitories, scientific laboratory, and library. During its lifetime, the academy contributed much to the town's culture and its graduates entered many different walks of life. It closed with the advent of World War I in 1917. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 9.7 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 18 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.

More markers nearby

• Hittson Ranch Headquarters on Battle Creek — 5.6 mi
• Burkett Pecan Tree — 5.7 mi
• Site of Cottonwood Springs — 8.7 mi
• Cottonwood Bank and Post Office — 8.7 mi