Polly’s schoolhouse gets restoration, returns to community

I have spent a good many years researching county records and old photographs, and I have learned that the best stories are rarely the grand ones. They are usually found in small places: a one-room schoolhouse on a gentle rise along Old Bear Creek Road, with cedar and oak crowded around it. Polly's Schoolhouse is one of those places. Its restoration is finally complete, and on Saturday, October 17, 2026, you’re invited to watch the ribbon be cut and walk through the doors.

A School Before There Were Schools

Think back to frontier Bandera County in the early 1800s. There were no school districts to speak of. Children in the hill country learned at the kitchen table, or, if the family could manage it, from a hired tutor. Only larger towns had proper primary schools.

That began to change in 1881, when the Legislature passed its 'Free School' law, promising every Texas child an education at no cost. It was a fine promise, and the state had hardly any money to keep it. There were funds for teachers' pay and a few supplies, but nothing for land or building. If a community wanted a school, it would have to build one itself.

A Rancher with a Plan

Fortunately, southeast Bandera County had a man who understood that. J.P. 'Polly' Rodriguez, a native Tejano pioneer, had founded a settlement of more than thirty ranching families, Tejano and European alike. By the 1880 census, over three hundred men, women and children lived there, and the settlement boasted a chapel, a general store and a post office.

On September 1, 1881, Rodriguez petitioned the Bandera County Commissioners Court to form the Privilege Creek School District, one of the first in the state. County Judge Thomas A. Peacock granted it and set aside $92.40 for operations. Polly, Blas Loya and James Hill were named the first trustees. I confess that the sum amuses me. A good steer might fetch more today than the whole school budget did then.

In April 1882, Rodriguez finished building Polly's Chapel on his ranch and let the children use it as a classroom. That autumn the district received $93.60 for twenty-six pupils.

Building to Last

By 1889, Rodriguez wanted something permanent. He gave one acre of his own land for a proper schoolhouse and set about building it of local limestone. Trustees Blas Loya, O. Herrera, Louis Rodriguez, J.M. Herrera, Francisco Gerodetti and Jesus Obiedo helped see it through.

The building is modest. It measures eighteen feet by thirty, with a fireplace, generous windows, two doors, and high wooden ceilings to keep the air moving through a Texas summer. The steep cedar- shake roof carried rainwater to a hand-built cistern. In 1892 it was finished, and the first teacher was Miss Marie L. Herrera, who was also Polly's granddaughter. Her mother, Sarita, was Polly's youngest daughter. The school was, from its first day, a family affair.

Over the next fifty years, fourteen teachers, men and women both, taught within those walls. The last, Miss Norma Davenport, taught from 1925 until 1942. Soon after, school consolidation folded Polly's School into the Bandera Independent School District, and the doors closed.

More Than a Schoolroom It would be a mistake to think of the place only as a school. In those days a building like this served the whole neighborhood. It was the polling place on election day. It hosted holiday celebrations and social gatherings. It was, in the truest sense, the community's front room.

When the doors shut, the building did not fall silent so much as fall asleep. It stayed closed and shuttered for some seventy-five years.

The Long Road Back

This one was not, and the credit goes to people stubborn enough to try. In the early 2000s, then-Senator Jeff Wentworth carried legislation allowing historic one-room schoolhouses to be transferred from school districts to nonprofit groups. In 2016 the Polly Texas Pioneer Association, a 501(c)(3) historical and restoration organization, asked Bandera ISD for the schoolhouse so that it could be restored for community use.

Then came the hard part. Restoring a building of this age is slow, expensive work, and the pandemic did the project no favors. Craftsmen repaired the walls, restored the stucco and gave the old place a fresh coat of paint. Families, neighbors and local businesses gave what they could, and many gave a great deal. I have seen plenty of preservation projects stall for lack of money or interest. This one kept going because people in this county kept showing up.

The 1901 class portrait, with a slate reading 'School No. 1' held up in front, shows rows of earnest faces, boys sitting barefoot in the dirt, girls in their best dresses. They had no idea we would be looking at them more than a century later. Now the building behind them stands finished, and it belongs to the community once again.

Come Cut the Ribbon with Us

On Saturday, October 17, the Polly Texas Pioneer Association will hold an open house and ribbon cutting to celebrate the completed restoration, and we would be honored to have you there. Come at 10 am to Polly's Schoolhouse, 2320 Bear Creek Rd, Pipe Creek, TX 78063. Watch the ribbon fall, then step inside, and imagine twenty- six youngsters bent over their slates. Bring the children and grandchildren, because few things teach a child about history like standing in the place where it happened. If your family has roots here, bring your stories.

Beginning next year, the Association plans to open the schoolhouse to residents and organizations for gatherings and meetings, just as it was used long ago. The Association already restored the chapel Polly himself built, which is used regularly for weddings and events, and they offer burial plots and have planned improvements for Polly’s Cemetery. A good building ought to be used, and I suspect Polly Rodriguez would approve.

Admission is free. For questions, call the Association at 210-892-0135 or visit pollytexaspioneerassociation. org, where you can find more history and restoration projects.