Groups hope to save old school despite its dilapidation

The two big and welcoming trees at the front of Miller Grade School (1936-1974) are down now.

The building behind won’t stand too much longer.

The school’s restoration committee, formed in 2001, had set a huge goal of $1.5 million to preserve the 38 years of memories the school nurtured.

How times have changed. The entire building in 1936 had cost just $19,455 and that was thanks to the help of the federal Works Progress Administration program. It took only 120 days to build.

The Miller School did create special memories, as so many former students say. It was made of Atlanta brick and was small and practical with its one story and six rooms.

It had an auditorium but no cafeteria. Many students would go for lunch to the nearby popular hangout, The Briar Patch, a sandwich shop located near the school’s front.

The late David Kennedy, principal from 1955 to 1972, recalled in an interview, “From time to time, I or other teachers had to go out there and settled the kids down when they got too noisy at lunch time.”

During the Rodessa oil boom days, the Miller Grade School had so many students it had to have two sessions each school day.

Other students remember the school for its environment, a place in which teachers taught and controlled their classes with consummate authority.

Former student Larry Smith wrote down the teachers’ names at the school’s opening when he started first grade there in 1936. They were:

First Grade: Miss Wilburn Salmon

Second Grade: Miss Joe Lee Tittle (Grogan) and Mrs. Onie Simple

Third Grade: Miss Margaret Rainey

Fourth Grade: Mrs. Rose

Hall

Fifth Grade: Miss Margaret Harkness (Miss Fannie Warren substituted for the last half of this year.)

Sixth Grade: Miss Maxine Frost

Seventh Grade: Miss Aleene Endsley (Taylor)

Eighth Grade: Miss Christine Endsley (Puckett)

The school closed in 1974 when the Atlanta Primary was opened. For a time afterward, the school was used for community meetings such as the Senior Citizens Center and an alternative school setting for the school district.

It was hoped that Texarkana College would take over the facility and teach classes here. Another solution was for the Texas Mental Health Mental Retardation service to use the building.

The likely accepted thinking at the time was that if an older building doesn’t get used, no matter how well built, it falls into ruin.

As time went on and when these possibilities did not occur, an association formed to consider how to save the school. Money to buy the building began to be raised. Finally, in 1990, the enthusiastic president of the Atlanta Grade School Friends, Jane Cook Barnhill, now of Brenham, Texas, invested and bought the building from the school district.

Barnhill’s leadership had resulted from her growing up here and attending the school. She was the daughter of Walter “John” and Blanche Cook. Her father had been popularly known as “Honest John” while owning Cook’s Shoe Store in downtown Atlanta. She later served on the Texas Historical Commission.

The Friends group continued its progress and in 2006 the building achieved a Texas Historical Marker designation that was presented July 13 of that year by Anita Perry, wife of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Through the years, the Friends group, the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta City Development Corp. and the Atlanta Independent School District worked together to try to keep the Miller Grade School. The building now, however, has become too deteriorated to restore without a large amount of money.

Today, with its windows broken and its interior open because locks on doors are broken, the grade school is more of a derelict relic.

A neighbor nearby said he believes the historical marker itself was only briefly, if ever, left attached or displayed. It’s actually stored at the Atlanta Museum today.

What to do with the building is a now difficult question.

“There are many who believe the building will still be used again,” Jane Barnhill said. “Many, many historic buildings fall into disrepair before being saved.

“The biggest hurdle is getting people to see the vision. Too often the attitude is, ‘Oh, my, it is so far gone there is no hope.’

“I don’t think we are ready to give up on it. Hopefully, this attention to it will stir up interest again.”

“There are many who believe the building will still be used again. Many, many historic buildings fall into disrepair before being saved.” —Jane Barnhill, Atlanta Grade School Friends president

Staff photo by Neil Abeles The Miller Grade School building, on West Miller Street in Atlanta, Texas, was vacated in 1974. Two trees were at the front walkway entrance, and both are now gone. The building has deteriorated so badly that it would take a large amount of money to...