The Blackwell School National Historic Site in Marfa was recently added to the list of 14 National Park Service sites in Texas.
The adobe schoolhouse in a quiet neighborhood doesn’t look very distinguished from the outside, but inside it tells a big story of the resiliency of the Mexican American community in West Texas.
Through exhibits, photographs, and memorabilia, the museum relates the educational experience of Hispanic children. There was no state law officially segregating schools, but minority children were sent to “separate but equal” educational facilities in what was “de facto segregation.”
Used for classrooms beginning in 1909, the building was retired by the school district in 1965 and used for storage. For the last two decades, the school’s alumni have worked to save the historic structure, the last building of a larger complex.
Part of the building is devoted to a re-created classroom with small wooden desks. Class pictures, letter jackets, and sports uniforms hang on the walls. One of the more disturbing displays is of a small coffin used in a “Burying Mr. Spanish” funeral ceremony when speaking Spanish was banned on campus in 1954. At the 2007 school reunion, the coffin was dug up and “Spanish was resurrected.”
Because of efforts by the Blackwell School Alliance, the school was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. President Joe Biden signed the Blackwell School National Historic Site Act on Oct. 17, 2022.
Since then the Alliance has continued to open the museum on weekends while National Park Service employees from nearby Fort Davis National Historic Site work on restoration and signage. NPS officials will officially welcome the new historic site on Sept. 14.
The Blackwell School National Historic Site at 501 S. Abbot St. in Marfa includes a small playground. The school is currently typically open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4pm.
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This article appears in August 23 • 2024.
