Old Hidalgo School
a.k.a. Teacherage
Flora and 4th Sts., Hidalgo, TXOriginally built as one large room with a moveable partition, this building served as both a schoolhouse and a meeting house in Hidalgo before there was a Hidalgo Independent School District. The oldest remaining schoolhouse in the town, the building's unique vernacular expression has made it a landmark in this small border community.
Hidalgo County Commissioners Court ordered the establishment of a public school soon after the organization of the county in 1852, at which time a one-room structure was built. Near the time that the courthouse was built in 1886, a five-room schoolhouse was erected just west of the present location of the Teacherage. This school was expanded by the addition of a second story, as well as additions to the ground floor, and then by construction of the Teacherage on the same block in 1915. The Teacherage was built without a bond issue. The 19th-century school was demolished in 1923 before the construction of the remaining two-story school at the same location in 1925, at which time the one-story brick structure became known as the Teacherage, due to its new use as a teachers' hostel.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.