National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No

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NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National RegisterSBR of Historic Places Registration Draft Form

1. Name of Property

Historic Name: Mission Valley School and Teacherage Other name/site number: NA Name of related multiple property listing: NA

2. Location

Street & number: 1135 Mission Valley Road City or town: New Braunfels State: Texas County: Comal Not for publication:  Vicinity: 

3. State/Federal Agency Certification

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this  nomination  request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property  meets  does not meet the National Register criteria.

I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following levels of significance:  national  statewide  local

Applicable National Register Criteria:  A  B  C  D

State Historic Preservation Officer Signature of certifying official / Title Date

Texas Historical Commission

State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government

In my opinion, the property  meets  does not meet the National Register criteria.

______Signature of commenting or other official Date

______State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government

4. National Park Service Certification

I hereby certify that the property is:

___ entered in the National Register ___ determined eligible for the National Register ___ determined not eligible for the National Register. ___ removed from the National Register ___ other, explain: ______

______Signature of the Keeper Date of Action United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels , ComalDraft County, Texas

5. Classification

Ownership of Property

X Private Public - Local Public - State Public - Federal

Category of Property

building(s) X district site structure object

Number of Resources within Property

Contributing Noncontributing 2 0 buildings 0 0 sites 8 0 structures 0 0 objects 10 0 total

Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register: 0

6. Function or Use

Historic Functions: Education: school, education-related housing

Current Functions: OTHER (public meeting space); Domestic: single dwelling

7. Description

Architectural Classification: Other: Mid-to-late Nineteenth Century Vernacular; Other: No Style

Principal Exterior Materials: Stone: limestone, Wood: weatherboard; Metal

Narrative Description (see continuation sheets 7-7 through 7-11)

Page 2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels , ComalDraft County, Texas

8. Statement of Significance

Applicable National Register Criteria

X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. D Property has yielded or is likely to yield information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations: NA

Areas of Significance: Education

Period of Significance: 1870 – 1950

Significant Dates: 1870, 1884

Significant Person (only if criterion B is marked): NA

Cultural Affiliation (only if criterion D is marked): NA

Architect/Builder: NA

Narrative Statement of Significance (see continuation sheets 8-12 through 8-18)

9. Major Bibliographic References

Bibliography (see continuation sheets 9-19 through 9-20)

Previous documentation on file (NPS): _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested. _ previously listed in the National Register _ previously determined eligible by the National Register _ designated a National Historic Landmark _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # _ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record #

Primary location of additional data: x State historic preservation office (Texas Historical Commission, Austin) _ Other state agency _ Federal agency _ Local government _ University x Other -- Specify Repository: Sophienburg Museum & Archives

Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): NA

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels , ComalDraft County, Texas

10. Geographical Data

Acreage of Property: 2.8 acres

Coordinates

Latitude/Longitude Coordinates

Datum if other than WGS84: NA

1. Latitude: 29.721525° Longitude: -98.202531° 2. Latitude: 29.720236° Longitude: -98.201476° 3. Latitude: 29.720019° Longitude: -98.201815° 4. Latitude: 29.720793° Longitude: -98.202490° 5. Latitude: 29.720198° Longitude: -98.203400° 6. Latitude: 29.720632° Longitude: -98.203784°

Verbal Boundary Description: The boundary for the Mission Valley School and Teacherage is comprised of two legal parcels, Property ID# 72382 and 72401, and described by the Comal CAD as: (72382) A-235 SUR-284 J Heidrich, ACRES 1.8; and (72401) A-259 SUR-358 J H HARTMAN, ACRES 1.0. The boundary is sketched on Map 7.

Boundary Justification: The nomination includes all property historically associated with the Mission Valley School.

11. Form Prepared By

Name/title: Katherine Duffield Hill/Architectural Historian, David W. Moore, Jr./Historian Organization: HHM & Associates, Inc. Street & number: P.O. Box 9648 City or Town: Austin State: TX Zip Code: 78766 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (512) 478-8014 Date: August 1, 2019

Additional Documentation

Maps (see continuation sheets MAP-21 through MAP-28)

Additional items (see continuation sheets FIGURE-29 through FIGURE-35)

Photographs (see continuation sheets PHOTO-36 through PHOTO-46)

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Photograph Log

Name of Property: Mission Valley School City or Vicinity: New Braunfels, Comal County State: Texas Number of Photographs: 20 Photographers: Katherine Duffield Hill Dates photographed: December 10, 2019

Photo No. 1 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0001.tif) Southwest oblique view of stone school (Resource 1) including added porch roof. Camera facing north.

Photo No. 2 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0002.tif) Oblique view of the 1884 stone schoolhouse (Resource 1) with historic cistern (Resource 7) in the foreground. Camera facing south.

Photo No. 3 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0003.tif) View of the kitchen and storage room extension to the stone schoolhouse (Resource 1). Camera facing south.

Photo No. 4 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0004.tif) View of modern bathroom addition extension to the stone school (Resource 1).

Photo No. 5 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0005.tif) Interior view of stone school (Resource 1), including the entrance through the central doorway on the primary façade. Camera facing southwest.

Photo No. 6 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0006.tif) Interior view of stone school (Resource 1), camera facing north towards the cast iron stove, located centrally in the schoolhouse. Camera facing north.

Photo No. 7 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0007.tif) Interior view of stone school (Resource 1), looking through the small kitchen addition towards the modern bathroom addition, camera facing west.

Photo No. 8 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0008.tif) The primary (southeast) façade of the original 1870 schoolhouse (Resource 2), converted to a teacherage in 1884. Camera facing northwest.

Photo No. 9 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0009.tif) Northeast facade view of teacherage (Resource 2). The rear porch addition to the original structure is visible from this perspective. Camera facing southwest.

Photo No. 10 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0010.tif) View of the teacherage’s (Resource 2) back porch, the exterior wall of the original one-room schoolhouse prior to additions is visible on this façade. Camera facing east.

Photo No. 11 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0011.tif) Oblique view of teacherage (Resource 2), with historic cistern (Resource 10) directly to its southwest. Camera facing north.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Photo No. 12 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0012.tif) Interior view of the original one-room schoolhouse (Resource 2) later converted to the teacherage. View facing southeast.

Photo No. 13 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0013.tif) Interior view of the kitchen addition to the teacherage (Resource 2), camera facing south.

Photo No. 14 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0014.tif) Historic playground equipment (Resource 3), a wood and metal pipe fixture teeter-totter playground apparatus, similar to playground types popular during the model playground era. Camera facing north.

Photo No. 15 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0015.tif) Historic playground equipment (Resource 3); a wood and metal chain swing suspended from a wood support. Camera facing west.

Photo No. 16 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0016.tif) Historic woodshed (Resource 5) associated with the 1884 stone schoolhouse, camera facing south.

Photo No. 17 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0017.tif) Historic outhouse (Resource 6), camera facing west.

Photo No. 18 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0018.tif) Historic outhouse (Resource 7), camera facing northeast.

Photo No. 19 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0019.tif) Historic timber garage (Resource 8) associated with the teacherage (Resource 2), camera facing east.

Photo No. 20 (TX_ComalCounty_MissionValleySchool_0020.tif) Historic timber shed associated with the teacherage (Resource 2), camera facing south.

This project was funded in part through a Certified Local Government Grant from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, as administered by the Texas Historical Commission.

The contents and opinions, however, do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior.

This program receives Federal funds from the National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination in departmental Federally Assisted Programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age or handicap. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility operated by a recipient of Federal assistance should write to: Director, Equal Opportunity Program, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, D.C. 20013-7127.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Page 6 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Narrative Description

The Mission Valley School and Teacherage is a late-nineteenth-century rural school complex in the Mission Valley community in southeastern Comal County, Texas five miles northwest of New Braunfels, the county seat. The approximately 2.8-acre L-shaped property, consisting of two legal parcels, is characterized by dense canopies of trees and gently slopes upward to the east. Established in 1870 as a public free school, the district features two buildings: the original 1870 wood-frame side-gabled school (later expanded into a teacherage) and a front-gabled limestone block one-room schoolhouse built in 1884. Historic-age playground equipment, cisterns, outhouses, and a number of ancillary timber sheds and storage structures demonstrate the property’s evolution and use through 1950 when the school closed. All 10 resources are considered contributing. Although modern development encroaches the rural setting northeast of the property, the Mission Valley School and Teacherage retains excellent integrity to communicate its historical significance as a 19th century rural school.

General Overview of Property

The Mission Valley community is a historically rural area of Comal County, located approximately five miles northwest of downtown New Braunfels, the county seat. The Mission Valley School and Teacherage property consists of two parcels, granted to the Mission Valley School in 1872 and 1884, which together amount to approximately 2.8 acres located just south of Mission Valley Road. Though the area surrounding the Mission Valley School and Teacherage was historically secluded, modern residential developments have begun to encroach on what was previously undeveloped agricultural land (Map 3). Despite modern construction on nearby parcels, the Mission Valley School and Teacherage continues to convey its historic role as a 19th century rural community school because dense canopies of trees surround most of the property and contributes to its secluded feel.

The landscape of the nominated property reflects the larger Hill County terrain, which is characterized by rolling hills with exposed limestone, scrubby grasses best suited for grazing, and wooded areas of native trees like the large stand of Ashe juniper that shelters the playground. The terrain of the L-shaped property gradual decreases 10 feet in elevation from the southeast (Map 8), near the 1884 schoolhouse (Resource 1) towards the 1870 teacherage (Resource 2) along Mission Valley Road. Circulation within the property is limited to a gravel driveway from Mission Valley Road that splits with one drive approaching the teacherage to the southwest and the other extending to the southeast to the schoolhouse. No modern structures have been built on the nominated property since the period of significance ended in 1950.

First established in 1870, the Mission Valley School and Teacherage is a rural public school that operated until 1950 and consists of 10 total resources that are all classified as contributing. The district includes: an 1884 stone schoolhouse (Resource 1), the teacherage (Resource 2), historic playground equipment (Resource 3)—including a teeter-totter, swing, picnic table, and gymnastic chin-up bar—two cisterns (Resources 4 & 10), two sheds (Resources 5 and 9), two outhouses (Resources 6 and 7), and a garage (Resource 8). Resources are clustered in two areas that reflect the evolution of the property: The first cluster consists of the teacherage (Resource 2) and shed (Resource 6), both of which are at the base of the hill, near Mission Valley Road on the original parcel set aside for the school. The second grouping is the 1884 schoolhouse (Resource 1), playground (Resource 3), the schoolhouse’s cistern (Resource 4) and woodshed (Resource 5), all located atop a small hill in the southeastern portion of the property. The two outhouses are located between the two clusters (see Map 2).

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Inventory The following table presents an inventory of all resources within the boundaries of the Mission Valley School and Teacherage. Dates of construction are based on research, field estimates, and information provided by the Mission Valley Community Center organization and the Comal County Historical Commission.

The inventory is keyed on Map 2.

Table 1. Inventory of all resources within the boundaries of the Mission Valley School and Teacherage. Resource No. Property Type Year Built NRHP Contributing Status Photo Nos. 1 Building – Stone Schoolhouse 1884 Contributing 1–7 2 Building – Teacherage 1870 Contributing 8–13 3 Structure – Playground ca. 1925 Contributing 14 4 Structure – Cistern 1 ca. 1884 Contributing 2 5 Structure – Woodshed ca. 1920 Contributing 16 6 Structure– Outhouse 1 ca. 1935 Contributing 17 7 Structure – Outhouse 2 ca. 1935 Contributing 18 8 Structure – Garage ca. 1920 Contributing 19 9 Structure – Shed ca. 1884 Contributing 20 10 Structure – Cistern 2 ca. 1870 Contributing 11

Individual Building Descriptions

1884 Schoolhouse (Resource 1, Photos 1–7)

The Mission Valley Schoolhouse is a one-story front-gabled rectangular limestone block building built in 1884 with a historic-age limestone shed addition on the rear elevation. Its dimensions are approximately 40x24 feet. The school faces southwest at the easternmost corner of the property and is situated at the top of a gradual hill, which marks the highest point of the property. The original building is rough-cut limestone block construction laid in regular courses on a stone foundation, and it is characterized by symmetrical fenestration. Windows are original 6/6 double-hung wood frame construction with stone sills and lintels. Historic photographs show louvered shutters on all windows. The roof is galvanized metal but was originally cedar shingles. As a single-room schoolhouse, the interior has an open plan with a small kitchen and restroom in the addition. Since the school’s closure in 1950, the building has been used as a community center for Mission Valley.

Exterior

The primary façade of the schoolhouse faces southwest. The gable-front roof line is articulated by simple cornice returns, and a small wood-paneled door is centered in the gable end. This façade is characterized by a central glazed door, with a two-pane transom window and a stone lintel and is flanked by a double-hung, wood-framed, six-over-six windows. The porch, added an unknown date c. 1925-1940, has a timber-framed roof, exposed rafters, galvanized metal roofing, and metal pole supports (Figure 2). A metal flagpole is at the southwestern corner of this porch. There is a black THC Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation plaque on the far southwestern side, placed there after 2009.

The northwestern (side) elevation has three, evenly spaced windows, and the stone foundation is visible due to the gentle slope of the land. A narrow brick chimney is on the roof near the edge of the 1884 portion and is attached to the interior stove used to heat the school. The rear addition, completed before 1950, attaches to the far northern side of this

Section 7, Page 8 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas elevation, but it is set back from the wall plane of the original building. A single wooden door with a glass pane is centered on this addition, with three stone steps descending to a small cement pad. The door is topped by small shed roof of consisting of galvanized steel and a single metal rod support.

The northeastern (rear) façade was altered with the construction of the shed addition that obscures most of the rear façade. It is setback from the northwest elevation by approximately two feet and extends beyond the wall plane of the southeast (side) elevation by several feet. The extended portion is the interior restroom and is believed to be a non- historic addition to the historic addition. There are differences in the masonry that suggest two phases of the addition: random limestone ruble in the historic portion versus lighter-colored limestone block in the non-historic area of the addition. The entire shed addition has a galvanized steel-covered shed roof with timber eaves and exposed rafter ends and meets the original schoolhouse below the beginning of its rear-facing gable, the junction protected with a strip of metal flashing. Even squared courses are visible on the original schoolhouse above the addition. Fenestration on the rear elevation of the original school building was retained on the interior of the addition and is described in a different section of the nomination.

The southeastern (side) façade of the 1884 portion of the school is identical to the northwestern elevation. The rear addition projects past the original rear wall of the school, interrupting the original façade by approximately 12 inches. The stone courses of this non-historic addition are more like the squared, even courses present on the original stone schoolhouse as constructed in 1884, as opposed to the irregular stonework present on the historic addition. This seems to have been done to minimize the addition’s effect on the historic feel of the stonework. The non-historic extension has a long, narrow fixed rectangular window with a stone lintel and sill.

Interior

The schoolhouse is a one-room building (Fig. 1), with two windows on the front and rear façades and three windows on each of the side façades. This natural light helped illuminate the school until electric lighting was installed in 1942.1 A free-standing wood-fueled metal furnace is set towards the rear of the classroom and is vented with a metal flue. The rear door, which originally opened to the outside, now opens into the shed addition that is used as a kitchen and bathroom. Of the two windows that were originally set in the rear façade, the easternmost has been sealed and is now used as a bulletin board. The westernmost window remains and now looks into the kitchen addition. A small restroom of relatively recent construction (see figure 1) extends from the easternmost portion of the kitchen addition.

1870 Teacherage (Resource 2, Photos 8–13)

The teacherage was built in 1870 as the first Mission Valley School and was originally a one-story side-gabled building, 16 feet by 18 feet, framed with timber and resting on a rough-cut stone foundation (Figure 10). Following the construction of the 1884 stone schoolhouse (Resource 1), this building was converted into housing for Mission Valley teachers. To that end, it was expanded and now stands approximately 40 feet by 30 feet, including front and rear porches. The dates and precise nature of the additions are not known but estimated to have occurred c. 1900. Differences in siding, however, on the front southeast (front) and northwest (rear) elevations and interior differences in the wood flooring are evidence of the original layout and historic addition (Photo 10). The conversion of the former schoolhouse into teacher housing would have been an asset to a rural school and its community, and any alterations associated with its reuse and repurposing within the period should be considered an important component of its physical character, architectural significance, and historic integrity.

Exterior

The building’s primary façade faces southeast and has a full-width porch with a shed roof, supported by rough-hewn

1 Alton J. Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community (San Antonio: Alton J Rahe and Historical Publishing Network, 2010), 61.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas timbers. A concrete slab serves as the floor for the porch, and a double-hung, wood-sash window is on either side of the central passageway. The roofing material consists of corrugated metal, and a corbeled brick chimney with a metal cap projects from the northeastern end of the side-gabled roof. The exterior walls have horizontal wood siding, applied following the construction of an addition on the building’s southwestern side. The date of the addition is not known but the use of such building material indicates that the addition was likely constructed following the establishment of rail service to Comal County in 1880. A gutter runs the length of the shed-roofed porch and likely was historically connected to a rainwater catchment system that fed into the cistern. However, this system is no longer extant.

The northwest (rear) elevation also has a shed roof porch that was added during the historic period. The porch has chamfered wood columns and a concrete floor that likely replaced a wood floor. A metal gutter runs the length of the roofline on this elevation as well and likely was historically connected to a water catchment system similar to the one used at the stone schoolhouse; again, this apparatus is no longer extant. The southwestern-most section of this porch is enclosed with board-and-batten wood siding, and the date of this alteration is unknown. The windows are double-hung with wood sashes and six-over-six lights.

The side elevations, facing northeast and southwest, are characterized by horizontal wood siding and a centered double-hung, six-over-six, wood-framed window on each gable end.

Interior

The teacherage is a four-room residence with three living areas and a bathroom (Figure 2). Interior finishes evidence the conversion of the building from a one-room school to a teacherage. One enters into, what could have been, a breezeway with symmetrical exterior doors on the northwest and southwest elevations. Interior doors from the enclosed central passage open to rooms on the southwest and northeast sides of the teacherage. The original one-room schoolhouse (northeast room) is, now, a bedroom. Wide wood floorboards in this room run perpendicular to wood floors in the central passage and kitchen/living (southwest) room. Non-historic interior alterations in the 1870 portion of the building include drywall ceilings and walls, and the addition of a closet. The historic-age addition (central passage and kitchen/living room) has wood board walls and ceilings. From the kitchen, a segment of the rear porch was enclosed to create a small bathroom. A doorway from the bathroom addition leads onto the rear porch.

Playground (Resource 3, Photos 19–22)

The playground equipment on the grounds includes a limestone and cement picnic table and two benches, a teeter- totter, a swing, and a pull-up bar apparatus. All of the play equipment is situated in a grove of cedar trees to the northwest of the stone schoolhouse.

The teeter-totter (ca. 1925) consists of a metal pipe structure, with three vertical supports connected by a horizontal pipe. The assembly is held together using metal pipe fittings. Originally, there would have been two wooden teeter- totters, one centered in each bay created by the metal supports, but only the northernmost of the two survives to the present day.

The swing (ca. 1925) consists of a wooden seat, suspended from metal chains. The swing is supported by a wooden truss, affixed to two cedar trees.

The picnic table (ca. 1930) is constructed of limestone blocks and concrete. The limestone blocks, assembled with mortar in rough courses, supports simple concrete slabs that serve as two benches and a table surface. The limestone was likely sourced from the property itself but may have come from a nearby quarry.

The chin-up gymnastic bar apparatus (ca. 1925) consists of a single horizontal metal pipe suspended between two vertical wooden timbers. The wooden supports have three holes drilled through their center, allowing the metal pipe to be raised or lowered.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Other Contributing Resources (Resources 4–10, Photos 16-20)

Outbuildings associated with both the teacherage and the stone schoolhouse are generally situated around the two primary buildings. In addition to the historic playground equipment to the southwest of the stone schoolhouse, a cistern (Resource 4) is located to the north of the building. This cistern is constructed atop a cement pad, made of masonry and covered by wood planks. A metal water pump is located on the southern corner. Located to the southwest of the stone schoolhouse, in the far southwestern corner of the L-shaped parcel, is a small metal-sided rectangular woodshed with a metal, shed roof.

The stone schoolhouse was served by two wooden outhouses, the first (Resource 6) located near the northeastern boundary of the district, and the other (Resource 7) across the hill, along the southwestern district boundary. Both are simple wooden structures with board-and-batten siding, a single wood door, and a small metal side-gabled roof.

The teacherage (Resource 2) is also flanked by supporting structures, including a garage (Resource 8), shed (Resource 9), and cistern (Resource 10). The shed is constructed of rough-cut timber and sits on an uncut stone foundation. The wooden garage is in a poor condition. The cistern, no longer in use, is located directly to the southwest of the teacherage’s front porch. Like the one used at the stone school up the hill, the cistern is surrounded by a cement pad, and is constructed of limestone and mortar masonry. The opening is covered by a sheet of galvanized steel, and no functional pump remains.

For a diagram of the location and spatial relationships of the ancillary resources within the Mission Valley School and Teacherage, see Map 2.

Overall Integrity

The Mission Valley School and Teacherage retains a high level of integrity in its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Although it no longer functions as a school, the 1884 schoolhouse still fulfills a community-based purpose that minimizes any negative effects of the adjacent residential development. Despite the encroachment of a new subdivision on adjoining property, the complex still remains within a rural context that has been largely unaltered since the end of the historic period and continues to convey the qualities that represent its historic function. Additionally, the building materials used in the construction of both the teacherage and the stone schoolhouse are typical of this area of Texas, and the design and craftsmanship are indicative of the period in which they were built. The physical changes and alterations detailed above have not detracted from the property’s ability to portray its significance as a rural school, and it retains the vast majority of the qualities that distinguish the complex as a rural school and teacherage with support resources. The spatial relationships among the multiple resources on the property and with the surrounding land are also crucial to the integrity of the setting. The outhouses, playground equipment, cistern, and woodsheds were all an integral part of the property’s function as a historic school and teacherage. The presence of all major buildings used on the property, as well as the presence of historic ancillary structures, maintains the integrity of the property’s setting. As a whole, the Mission Valley School and Teacherage property continues to have strong integrity and imparts the significance of its role as a rural school in the Texas Hill Country.

Section 7, Page 11 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Statement of Significance

The Mission Valley School and Teacherage is a remarkably intact late-19th century rural public school complex that served the dispersed settlement of Mission Valley, Comal County from 1870 to 1950. It is nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Education at the local level of significance. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the majority of Texan students were educated in rural schools, which often also served as social centers for small communities. German immigrants to Texas established some of the state’s highest quality schools and were the first cultural group to levy local taxes in support of its public education system. Mission Valley School opened in the spirit of the community-based German instructional tradition. Local residents donated land for a public free school and cooperatively built Mission Valley’s first school building in 1870. In 1884, community leaders built a second one-room school on an adjacent parcel for Mission Valley’s growing student population and renovated the original 1870 schoolhouse to accommodate teacher housing. Like other 19th century rural schools, the vernacular buildings were constructed of local materials, timber and limestone, and built by Mission Valley citizens. The Mission Valley School and Teacherage operated for eight decades until 1950 when statewide consolidation led to the closure of many rural schools in Texas. Since its closing, a local group has retained the property as a civic center and communal meeting place for Mission Valley. The period of significance is 1870 to 1950, the years it operated as a public free school.

Settlement in Mission Valley, Comal County

Following the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836, many German immigrants settled in the Texas Hill Country, near present-day Comal County. This initial settlement was followed by a second wave of German immigrants who made the voyage from Germany and moved north from the coast of South Texas. The organization that oversaw this pilgrimage, called the Adelsverein (the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas) succeeded in bringing more than 7,000 immigrants to Central Texas between 1844 and 1853.2 The City of New Braunfels, seat of government for Comal County, was established in 1845. Many immigrants chose to settle outside the new town in the vast, rolling countryside surrounding the new town. Mission Valley was one such area, taking its name from nearby Mission Hill, where the Spanish had established a mission called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in 1757. During the mid- to late nineteenth century, Mission Valley emerged as a strong, interconnected rural community. Hermann Seele, a German immigrant and member of the Adelsverein who also served as New Braunfels first schoolteacher, made note of some of the earliest settlers of Mission Hill in The Cypress and Other Writings of a German Pioneer, a published collection of his writings from the early years of New Braunfels and Comal County. The early families at Mission Valley included the surnames Kappmeyer, Papes, Boehms, Walzem, Mueller, Startz and Kendall. Many of these early settlers would go on to be prominent Mission Valley community members and were actively involved with the development of the community’s school and its construction.3

Rural Education in Comal County and the Establishment of Mission Valley School

The newly settled immigrants placed an extraordinarily high value on education. The Adelsverein had operated on a set of bylaws established by a group of German noblemen in the mid-1840s. The bylaws addressed areas of particular concern, including the need for churches and schools. That schooling began rapidly in New Braunfels, where early classes were linked to the establishment of the church and were led by the church’s pastor shortly after the town’s founding in 1845. For those families that settled in the more remote areas surrounding the new town, early education

2 Louis E. Brister, “Adelsverin,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed July 20, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ufa01. 3 Hermann Seele, translated by Edward C. Breitenkamp, The Cypress and Other Writings of a German Pioneer in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 41.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas took place in the home. In Mission Valley, classes were held as early as 1861.4 Some of the earliest community members to sponsor schools included Conrad Kappmeyer, Friedrich Rustand, and stonemason J. J. Walzem, who hosted classes at his home from 1866 to 1868. As more immigrants arrived in the area and began to acquire land, these community members quickly came to understand the need for a proper school building for their growing population of young students.5

On October 8, 1870, Karl Brehmer donated one acre of land out of the northeast corner of the J. H. Hartman Survey (Abstract 358) and granted it to the trustees of the public free school (Christian Pape, Henrich Dietz, and Heinrich Adams) serving Mission Valley (see map 5)6. The location of this parcel was ideal; not only was it centrally located within the Mission Valley area, but it was near the public road that linked New Braunfels and Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, another major settlement of German immigrants in the Texas Hill Country.7 According to a history of the school district published by Frieda Brehmer Heidrich in 1932, the original one-room wood-framed schoolhouse (Resource 2) was built by “mutual participation.”8 Those with a hand in constructing the new school included former hosts, teachers and benefactors of the community school, including Karl and Julius Brehmer, Jacob Heidrich, Conrad Kappmeyer, and Heinrich Adams. The original 1870 schoolhouse was constructed using cedar timbers for the frame, limestone for the foundation and was 16 feet by 18 feet. The new school, though it was only 288 square feet, provided enough space to instruct 29 students during the 1870–1871 school year, and 35 students only a couple years later between 1872 and 1873. For the next 20 years, the small single-room schoolhouse served as the central school for children living in Mission Valley.

In the small, rural communities throughout Comal County, similar community-based schoolhouses took form. The Jacob’s Creek School was established in 1868, and a teacherage constructed alongside it in 1870.9 Unlike other such communities in rural Comal County, Mission Valley did not have a centrally located general store, church, cotton gin, or other single focal point of activity. This was likely due to its proximity to New Braunfels. Instead, the two nodes that developed in Mission Valley that became important community gathering spaces were the school and the Schuetzen Verein (shooting club) on Mission Valley Road.10 Both the Schuetzen Verein and the Mission Valley School served as the primary social centers for Mission Valley where area residents gathered and socialized. Alfred Jentsch, who attended the Mission Valley School in the 1920s, recalled attending school programs at the Schuetzen Verein. Other school events, including picnics, community meetings, classes, and holiday tree celebrations all seem to have been occasions that prompted a gathering at the school (fig. 3).

Statewide, the effort to fund public schools had begun in 1840 and developed in fits and starts. In 1845, the Texas state constitution established a “perpetual fund” supplied by one-tenth of the annual state tax revenue, and called on the legislature to establish free public schools throughout the state.11 By 1854, it was determined that each county be divided into school districts overseen by trustees, and each district was to provide a school building. In Comal County, seven school districts were established by 1861, though Mission Valley was not among them.12

Following the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, the Texas Constitution of 1876 included language that allotted

4 Biesele, Rudolph L. "Early Times in New Braunfels and Comal County." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1946), 87. 5 Frieda Brehmer Heidrich, “History of Mission Valley School,” (manuscript), pp 1-3, from Sophienburg Archives, New Braunfels, Texas. 6 Comal County Deed Records, Volume K, 297-298; Heidrich, “History of Mission Valley School.” 7 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 27. 8 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 4. 9 Rahe, Rural Schools and Teachers, 39. 10 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 4, 58. 11 Gail L. Jenner, “One Room: Schools and the Schoolteachers in the Pioneer West,” (Guilford: Twodot, 2018), 135. 12 Rahe, Rural Schools and Teachers, 7.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas large amounts of public land for the purpose of establishing and supporting schools.13 This new legislation did away with previously drawn local district boundaries, and allowed for small groups of parents to form a school, hire a teacher, and receive funding from the State Free School Fund. This was known as the Community System, and greatly empowered those in rural communities to continue investing in their local schools. By 1879, there were 19 school districts operating in Comal County (fig. 3).14 Classes had been held at the Mission Valley School since it was built in 1870, in many ways following the ideals of the Community system prior to its statewide implementation.

As Mission Valley continued to grow, the small school soon lacked the capacity to accommodate the increasing number of students. During the 1882–1883 school year, as many as 37 students crowded into the small schoolhouse, even as continued legislative changes were being made to the structure of schools in Texas. Common school districts with set areas of service were reestablished, replacing the Community System. Though Mission Valley was an unincorporated community that had no formal boundaries, this newly created school district served an area that spanned about 54.5 square miles, with the school at its approximate center (see figure 5). Each local district elected three trustees to supervise the school and were overseen by a common superintendent for the county.15

Under the new Common School District system, the increased number of students attending Mission Valley School led Friedrich and Emilie Heidrich to convey an additional 1.8 acres of land to the trustees of the Mission Valley School on March 14, 1884 for the modest sum of one dollar.16 The Heinrichs carved the parcel from their land in the Jacob Heidrich Survey (Abstract No. 284), and it directly abutted the 1870 school on the J. H. Hartman Survey (Abstract 358) (see map 7 and figure 5). A new stone schoolhouse (Resource 1) was constructed at the top of a small hill on the newly acquired parcel, approximately 500 feet to the southeast of the original 1870 school. Though many of the early buildings in Comal County had been constructed with timber, the new stone schoolhouse is indicative of a transformation in thinking about community buildings in German-Texan communities, and the availability of limestone and mortar in the area. The tradition of stone buildings in the Texas Hill Country enjoyed considerable popularity throughout Comal County and the surrounding region prior to the arrival of the railroad and the development of an improved road network to transport goods in more remote areas.

Though records of who exactly constructed the schoolhouse do not seem to exist, local census rolls showed a number of community members listed as stone masons.17 The limestone building materials were reportedly quarried from the land of Conrad Kappmeyer. Kappmeyer also operated two lime kilns within the Mission Valley area, producing several tons of lime each week and shipping it throughout Texas.18 Though other kilns were in use in nearby counties, the proximity of Kappmeyer’s quarry and his well-established support for public education would suggest that Kappmeyer likely provided the materials used in the construction of the stone schoolhouse.19

Like the original school, the new schoolhouse was constructed with the support of the community. In recognition of its role as the school for the Mission Valley District, the district number was inscribed in the limestone lintel over the door. Its design was utilitarian, but purposefully arranged in a common layout for one-room schools. The placement of its windows was clearly intended to allow easy ventilation and adequate lighting, both of which were considered essential attributes of a successful school building.20 Those qualities are even more evident within the interior, where the open classroom space, free-standing furnace, and wood floors harken back to the building’s former use as an

13 Max Berger and Lee Wilborn, "EDUCATION," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed January 2, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/khe01. 14 Rahe, Rural Schools and Teachers, 7. 15 Rahe, Rural Schools and Teachers, 8. 16 Comal County Deed Records, Volume 3, 31-32. 17 Hafertepe, Material Culture, 113. 18 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 33. 19 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 34. 20 Henry Barnard, School Architecture or Contributions to the Improvement of School-Houses in The United States, 2nd Edition (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1849).

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas educational facility. Although the front porch and rear additions were constructed long after the building was originally built, the school still retains many of the features that identify it as a historic rural schoolhouse. The lack of any major interior alterations enables visitors to understand how the interior was used as a one-teacher schoolhouse between 1884 and 1950. The Mission Valley School, as a single-teacher and single-room school, is an important example of a common rural resource that fell from use during the educational changes of the mid-twentieth century. This importance is heightened by the presence of the associated structures, including the teacherage.

The Significance of Rural Teacherages

Following the construction of the new stone schoolhouse in 1884, the original wood-frame schoolhouse was converted into a residence (teacherage) for the school’s instructor. This reuse illustrates the resourcefulness of the school trustees who sought to salvage and repurpose an existing building rather than demolish it or letting it deteriorate. The conversion of the building into a residence provided a practical and low-cost solution of improving education by offering instructors a place to live and make use of an existing resource that otherwise would serve no purpose or intended function. The use of teacherages was common in southern and western states, as these regions were so sparsely populated that finding adequate housing for teachers near many schools proved difficult.21 The presence of a teacherage, sometimes with farmable land associated with it, was an effective method of attracting instructors.

Teacherages, while present throughout the nation, were especially common in Texas. Texas is reported to have been the first state to establish homes for their schoolteachers, the first teacherage being in Blum, Texas in 1860.22 According to an article published in the Houston Post in 1923, “The establishment of the teacherages in connection with the rural schools should add to the stability of those schools. It will enable them to secure and hold a better class of teachers. It will enable the teachers to do better work, for their minds will not be burdened with worries over their own home conditions. It will emphasize the school as a social center and attract a larger personal interest.”23 The use of teacherages became much more popular in the 1920s; at that time, Texas had more teacherages than any other state.24 In 1927, Comal County itself had 15 teacherages including the one at Mission Valley School, according to an article published in The Eagle of Bryan, Texas.25

Daily Work and Play at the Mission Valley School

In rural Comal County, many of the communities supporting one-room schoolhouses were remarkably self-contained. In the case of Mission Valley, students’ families took turns supplying the firewood necessary to heat the school through the winter, storing it in the small woodshed (Resource 5) to the south of the stone schoolhouse (Resource 1). Settlers in Mission Valley also had to make careful use of collected rainwater, as many were too far from the nearest reliable water source, the Guadalupe River. At the Mission Valley School, rainwater was collected from the roof through a gutter system, which deposited the collected water into the nearby hand-dug cistern (resource 4). This system can be seen in the photograph of the school and its students dated approximately 1925 (fig. 4) and again in 1947 (fig. 9). Similar systems were used in the area, such as the one present on the nearby J. J. Walzem house.

Many of the day-to-day activities at the school are known thanks to the recorded histories of former students, many of which were collected by Mrs. Frieda Brehmer Heidrich in 1932. According to former student Deanna Heidrich Cook,

21 Spencer J. Maxcy, “The Teacherage in American Rural Education,” The Journal of General Education 30, no. 4 (1979): 267-74. 22 Associated Press, “Texas First State to Establish Homes for Their Public School Teachers – Now Leading Nation,” The Eagle, August 20, 1927, Newspapers.com. 23 “Teacherages in Rural Districts,” The Houston Post, August 3, 1923, from Newspapers.com. 24 “Teacherages in Rural Districts,” The Houston Post, August 3, 1923, from Newspapers.com. 25 Associated Press, “Texas First State to Establish Homes for Their Public School Teachers-- Now Leading Nation,” The Eagle (Bryan, Texas), August 20, 1927, from Newspapers.com.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas who attended during the 1949–1950 school year, school days began with the teacher ringing a loud bell and gathering her students, relying on the elder children to help assemble the younger students. The teacher had the challenge of splitting their attention amongst their students of different ages and levels.26 For play, games of baseball were played on the native grasses in front of the schoolhouse, and students refreshed themselves on hot days by drawing water from the cistern using a hand pump. Students also enjoyed the playground equipment, including the teeter-totter, a swing suspended from a wooden brace between two trees, and two metal gymnastics bars supported by wooden stands.

The presence of historic playground equipment within the complex provides a direct and tangible link to the property’s original use as a school. Like other aspects of the Mission Valley Schoolhouse and Teacherage, the origins of outdoor playscapes have roots in Germany. Early American outdoor gymnasia equipment is thought to have been influenced by the German culture of fitness. This early equipment consisted of simple structures, like parallel bars and vaulting horses, as the early play movement was based primarily on the pursuit of physical fitness, according to noted child development expert and the author of several books on the subject of play, Joe L., Frost, Ph.D., at the University of Texas at Austin.27 When American manufacturers of play equipment emerged, they introduced new apparatuses for swinging, climbing, and sliding. The era of “model playgrounds” emerged in the 1910s and continued into the late 1920s. Equipment manufactured during the Model Playground era was typically constructed from steel and wood. Common apparatuses were teeter-totters, gymnastic bars, slides, and swings.28

In November 1912, the Playground Association of America’s monthly magazine The Playground published thoughts on the challenges of rural schools and play equipment. The article noted that most rural schools had plenty of space but only had simple play equipment and advocated for the installation of more play apparatuses. It further went on to note that “these grounds are frequently utilized for picnic purposes and other outdoor occasions by the adult population of the community,” as was the case for the Mission Valley School.29 The play movement gained ground and began to spread to smaller towns and rural areas by 1917. Nationwide, model playground equipment gained great popularity, before economic conditions between 1929 to 1945 dramatically hindered its development.30

The simplicity of the equipment still present on the Mission Valley School grounds suggests this playscape was constructed between 1920, when playgrounds became more common in rural areas, and 1930, when the Great Depression and economic factors made the expenditure of funds to purchase playground equipment far more challenging.31 Historic play equipment from the Model Playground era has largely been lost due to modern safety concerns, and the changing approach to playground landscapes after World War II.32 Thus, existing equipment at the Mission Valley School and Teacherage is significant not only for what it adds to the historic character of the school grounds, but also for its rarity.

Modernization and Annexation

The Mission Valley School was always a source of pride for the residents of the rural community, constructed as it was from community resources and on donated land. However, the challenges presented by rural schools were considerable, chiefly in attracting and keeping skilled educators and transporting students within the rural districts.

26 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 60. 27 Joe Frost, A History of Children's Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement (New York: Routledge, 2012), 173. 28 Frost, A History of Children's Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement, 96-99, 103. 29 Garland Bricker, “Solving the Rural Recreation Problem,” The Playground (New York City), November 1912. 30 Frost, A History of Children's Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement, 163. 31 Katilin O’Shea, “How We Came to Play: The History of Playgrounds,” National Trust for Historic Preservation (blog), August 15, 2013, accessed January 9, 2020, https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-we-came-to-play-the-history-of- playgrounds/#.XUHkhuhKjct. 32 Frost, A History of Children's Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement, 171.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

These issues were debated statewide, and reports drafted by the State Superintendent frequently raised the concern of the rural district.33 In the early twentieth century, Texas made a statewide effort to make rural school districts more equal with the districts in more densely populated areas. Laws drafted between 1911 and 1925 sought to offer financial aid to small, rural districts with 400 or fewer students. The state also sought to ensure that these schools met some minimal requirements, including an adequate schoolhouse with the desks, seats, blackboards, and books needed for its students. In order to receive money from the state fund, the schools had to teach common school subjects and ensure that in one room schoolhouses, schoolteachers were not responsible for the education of too many students.34 These initiatives were a welcome investment to the Mission Valley School, which remained not only a local center for education, but continued serving the community in a variety of ways, including hosting community meetings, serving as a polling place for local elections, and a host of end-of-year celebrations.35

Despite the availability of public-sector funds for rural schools, the Mission Valley community continued to host events meant to provide greater support the school and its teachers. In 1934, for example, an assembly of the Mission Valley Parent-Teacher Association held a meeting where they decided to create a quilt to be raffled off at the close of the school year, and to purchase two new books for the school’s library. Gatherings at the school often included dancing and attendees were charged a small fee for admission, money that benefitted the school.36

Beginning in the late 1930s, the number of school districts in Texas and the nation declined due to a number of factors that stemmed from economic conditions, greater urbanization, improvements in transportation systems, and educational reforms that advocated the creation of larger school districts that consolidated and/or absorbed smaller rural school districts. Data compiled in a 1930s study of the schools in Comal County suggested that the students being educated within the City of New Braunfels were receiving a better education and for a lower price per pupil.37 By 1937, it was clear that the larger, more modern schools in the New Braunfels Independent School District were better equipped to meet the needs of many of the students. The facilities were larger, plumbed with city water and heated by steam, and students had ample access to books, science equipment, and athletic equipment. In addition, the teachers employed by the New Braunfels schools were more educated, with an average 3.8 years of college education per instructor, while those teaching in one-teacher rural schools averaged only 1.9 years.38

The expanding road network made it easier to bring students from far afield, to better access the city’s educational facilities and funding. As a result of these factors, the county’s rural school districts began consolidating in the 1940s. In 1949, the Texas Legislature passed the three Gilmer-Aikin laws, which affected extensive regulatory changes to public education funding and policy according to the recommendations fo the Gilmer-Aiken Committee assembled to study education reforms in Texas.39 The result of these laws was the consolidation of 4,500 school districts into 2,900 larger, more efficient administrative entities.40 These reforms extended to Mission Valley, and the final group of students met at the school during the 1949–1950 scholastic year. The Mission Valley school district was formally annexed into the New Braunfels Independent School District on June 3, 1952.41 By 1958, the school districts under the

33 Future researchers interested in pursuing the history of education in Comal County and other rural areas should turn to the State Superintendent’s Biennial Reports and Bulletins. Several such reports were used in the preparation of this nomination and should provide further data; Annie Webb Blanton, “Twenty-Second Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction: School Sessions of 1920-21 and 1921-22” (State of Texas, 1922), Hathitrust, 24. 34 Annie Webb Blanton and S. M. N. Marrs, Public School Laws of the State of Texas, Bulletin 143 (Texas Department of Education, 1922, 13. 35 Rahe, History of Mission Valley Community, 59. 36 “Mission Valley,” New Braunfels Herald, September 28, 1934, from Digital Archives of the New Braunfels Public Library. 37 Edward Hendrix West, “An Administrative Survey and Proposed Plan of Reorganization for the Schools of Comal County” (Thesis, University of Texas, 1937), 30. 38 West, “An Administrative Survey and Proposed Plan of Reorganization for the Schools of Comal County,” 30. 39 Archie P. McDonald, “All Things Historical: The Gilmer Aiken Law,” Texas Escapes Online Magazine (column), accessed July 30, 2019, http://www.texasescapes.com/AllThingsHistorical/Gilmer-Aikin-Law-Texas-Educational-Reform-104AM.htm. 40 Handbook of Texas Online, Oscar Mauzy, "Gilmer-Aikin Laws," accessed February 15, 2020. 41 Rahe, Rural Schools and Teachers, 47.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas umbrella of the Comal County Rural High School numbered only four, while the New Braunfels Independent School District had grown dramatically.

Mission Valley School Since 1950

Following the consolidation of the local school district into the New Braunfels system, a group of local residents formed the Mission Valley Community Center organization on May 31, 1952 and purchased the land that had long been used for the community school. The days of single-room schoolhouse education had come to a close in Mission Valley, but the property itself remained an important cultural hub and location for continued picnics, weddings, and other events. Members continue to maintain the property, and it remains a source of pride among area residents, both old and new. Suburban development continues to encroach upon the property, but the complex provides an important and tangible link to the area’s rural past and is symbolic of the hardships that early residents endured for generations while working to ensure that their children had opportunities to receive a proper education.

Summary

Mission Valley School and Teacherage is a rare intact 19th century school complex that includes the historic playground, teacherage, and associated outbuildings in a setting that is largely unchanged. German immigrants in Mission Valley established a public free school on donated land in 1870, and cooperatively built and maintained the school in a tradition common to many German Texan communities of the Hill Country region. In 1884, a second adjacent parcel was donated to the school for the construction of a new, limestone one-room building to serve Mission Valley’s growing student population. The original schoolhouse was renovated into a teacherage, which helped Mission Valley attract qualified teachers to their district. For eight decades, Mission Valley School and Teacherage provided elementary education to students across the area until 1950 when statewide consolidation forced its closure. It is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the area of Education. The period of significance represents the years it operated as a public free school, 1870 to 1950.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Bibliography

A. G. Spalding & Bros. “Spalding All-Steel Apparatus for the Playground.” A. G. Salding & Bros., 1911. From University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign via Archive.org, https://archive.org/details/spaldingallsteel00agsp/page/n63.

Associated Press. “Texas First State to Establish Homes for Their Public School Teachers – Now Leading Nation.” The Eagle (Bryan, Texas), August 20, 1927. From Newspapers.com.

Barnard, Henry. School Architecture or Contributions to the Improvement of School-Houses in The United States, 2nd Edition. New York, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1849.

Biesele, Rudolph L. "Early Times in New Braunfels and Comal County." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1946): 75-92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30237260.

Blanton, Annie Webb. “Twenty-Second Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction: School Sessions of 1920-21 and 1921-22.” State of Texas, 1922. From the New York Public Library via Hathitrust.org, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008697034.

Blanton, Annie Webb and S. M. N. Marrs. “Public School Laws of the State of Texas, Bulletin 143.” Texas Department of Education, 1922. From Stanford University Libraries via Google Boks, https://books.google.com/books?id=pe0NAQAAIAAJ.

Bricker, Garland. “Solving the Rural Recreation Problem.” The Playground (New York City), November 1912.

Brister, Louis E. “ADELSVEREIN.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed July 20, 2019. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ufa01.

Comal County Deed Records. Office of the Comal County Clerk. Comal County Courthouse, New Braunfels.

Hafertepe, Kenneth. The Material Culture of German Texas. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2016.

Heidrich, Frieda Brehmer. “History of Mission Valley School,” (manuscript), pp 1-3. from Sophienburg Archives, New Braunfels, Texas.

Joe L. Frost, A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement New York, NY: Routledge, 2012.

McDonald, Archie P. “All Things Historical: The Gilmer Aiken Law.” Texas Escapes Online Magazine. Accessed July 30, 2019. http://www.texasescapes.com/AllThingsHistorical/Gilmer-Aikin-Law-Texas-Educational- Reform-104AM.htm.

“Mission Valley.” New Braunfels Herald, October 20, 1905. From Digital Archives of the New Braunfels Public Library.

“Mission Valley.” New Braunfels Herald, September 28, 1934. From Digital Archives of the New Braunfels Public Library.

“Mission Valley School News.” New Braunfels Herald, December 9, 1932. From Digital Archives of the New Braunfels Public Library.

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Mission Valley SchoolSBR and Teacherage, New Braunfels, ComalDraft County, Texas

Mauzy, Oscar. “Gilmer-Aikin Laws.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed February 15, 2020. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mlg01.

O’Shea, Kaitlin. “How We Came to Play: The History of Playgrounds.” National Trust for Historic Preservation, August 15, 2013. https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-we-came-to-play-the-history-of- playgrounds/#.XUHkhuhKjct.

Rahe, Alton J. History of the Mission Valley Community. San Antonio, Texas: Historical Publishing Network, 2010.

Rahe, Alton J. Rural Schools and Teachers in Comal County, Texas 1845-1956. New Braunfels, Texas: Sophienburg Museum & Archives, 2017.

“Report of the Results of the Texas Statewide School Adequacy Survey.” Austin, TX: State Board of Education, 1937. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012336767&view=1up&seq=471.

Seele, Hermann. The Cypress and Other Writings of a German Pioneer in Texas. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1979.

“Teacherages in Rural Districts.” The Houston Post, August 3, 1923. From Newspapers.com.

Texas Teachers Association. “An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas.” Accessed July 22, 2019. https://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Welcome_and_Overview/An_Overview_of_the_History_of_Public_Educati on_in_Texas/.

West, Edward Hendrix. “An Administrative Survey and Proposed Plan of Reorganization for the Schools of Comal County.” Thesis, University of Texas, 1937.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Maps

Map 1. The Mission Valley School and Teacherage boundaries, and boundary vertices, represented on satellite imagery. Source: HHM & Associates, Inc., 2019.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 2. The Mission Valley School and Teacherage, including district boundaries and numbered resources. All resources are contributing, and an inventory can be found in Section 7 of the nomination. Source: HHM, 2019.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 3. The location Mission Valley School and Teacherage in the context of the larger New Braunfels area, including an inset detail map of the Mission Valley School and Teacherage and the modern residential development in the area. Source: HHM, 2019.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 4. Map of Texas’s counties with Comal County in red. Source: HHM, 2019.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 5. Clipping of an 1897 General Land Office map showing many original land grants and surveys including abstracts 358 and 284, highlighted in blue. Segments of both parcels were donated for the use of the Mission Valley School. Source: Library of Congress.

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Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 6. 1961 Comal County Texas Highway Department highway map showing the then-closed Mission Valley School (indicated by the square with a triangular flag) and teacherage (indicated by the square). Source: The Portal to Texas History UNT.

Section MAP, Page 26 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-001

Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 7. Parcel map from Comal Appraisal District showing the two parcels that include the school (72382) and the teacherage (72401) highlighted in blue. This diagram also shows the significant development taking place to the northeast of the district, including new roads and the development of single-family housing. Source: Comal County Appraisal District.

Section MAP, Page 27 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-001

Mission Valley School,SBR New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas Draft

Map 8: 1958 USGS topographical map of New Braunfels area. The nominated property is indicated by a red arrow. The black box is Resource 2 (1870 teacherage) and the white box is Resource 1 (1884 schoolhouse). Source: U.S. Geographic Survey “New Braunfels West,” University of Texas at Austin, Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection.

Section MAP, Page 28 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-001