Historical Marker

Site of Evergreen School

Historical marker location:
6 mi. N on SH 95; 0.5 mi. W on CR 298, Shiner, Texas
( from Shiner, take SH 95 north about 6 miles, then go west about 0.5 miles west CR 298)
Marker installed: 1994

School trustees Ernest Meyer, W. M. Krause and Otto Henkhaus purchased two acres here from August and Anna Seifert in 1897. The two-room frame Evergreen schoolhouse was built at this site and in 1903 an additional two acres were added to the property.

Evergreen School served the Henkhaus community and the surrounding area. It maintained a windmill powered water well and was heated with a wood burning stove. A principal and an assistant teacher lived in a teacherage adjacent to the school and taught grades 1-4 in one room and grades 5-8 in the other. The school averaged 60 students for its seven-month school term. In 1939 an eight-month school term was instituted and the eight grade held its first graduation exercise. The ninth grade was added in the 1940-41 school year. Funds to install electric lights at the school in 1940-41 were raised through community sponsored activities such as plays, dances, and volleyball and softball tournaments.

Overcrowded conditions at Evergreen School resulted in many of its students transferring to schools in the nearby communities of Moulton and Shiner during the 1940s. Evergreen School closed in the fall of 1951 and eventually the schoolhouse was razed.

1995.