Site of Switzer College

Sources differ on where Switzer College began. The marker says David and Rebecca Switzer founded it in 1902; the Handbook of Texas says Switzer Woman's College and Conservatory of Music moved from Weatherford to Itasca in 1902, then on to Dallas in 1912. Burney Military Academy operated here for two years afterward before it too closed. The town's other schooling began earlier, in a two-story frame schoolhouse that Robert E. Lee Masonic Lodge No. 449 built, opened in 1887. By 1906 Itasca had about 2,500 people, two banks, two hotels and four cotton gins.

What the plaque says

Site of Switzer College Founded 1902 by David and Rebecca Switzer as Woman's College and Conservatory of Music. Offered liberal arts, sciences, music. Had average of 125 students. Social activities included literary societies, lyceum courses, receptions. Moved to Dallas, 1912. Plant was sold, dismantled in 1917. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill County Courthouse — 10 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 23 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• Cleburne State Park — 24 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Itasca — 0.2 mi
• Site of Fort Smith — 5.8 mi
• Gathings College — 6.8 mi
• Town of Grandview — 7.7 mi