The first school in our award-winning school district. The place where the city of Southlake was born. That’s the 1919 Carroll School, a place that once was the heart of the community.
The original 1919 portion of the school, built in a T-shape, is on the left; three more rooms were added after World War II. After Johnson Elementary was built in 1960, the old school served as an art studio, warehouse and transportation office. It was closed in 2001.
Sadly, over the years the schoolhouse was largely forgotten. In 2004, when the Southlake Historical Society began to research it, few school district and city officials knew much, if anything, about it.
The Southlake Historical Society has worked to find ways for the school district and/or the city and/or private groups or individuals to save and reuse the building, but we have not been successful. The land the 1919 school sits on has become very valuable, and CISD plans to sell the property. After it’s sold, the 1919 Carroll School may likely be demolished. The school district has offered to donate the school to the SHS so it could be moved, perhaps to the Bob Jones Nature Center, but the SHS does not have the resources for such a project.
Thanks to the Southlake Baptist Church, the school is looking better on the outside than it has in years. Members of the church, which is renting the former Carroll Intermediate School next door, repainted the school, dealt with water-intrusion issues by repairing the roof and removing several window air conditioners, and added cleverly made fake windows that, from a distance, look real.
Both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Texas Historical Commission agree that the 1919 Carroll School is significant to our community.
To read more about efforts to perserve the histroy of the Southlake area go to: https://southlakehistory.org/buildings-markers/1919-carroll-school/