Fredericksburg, Gillespie County offers you a visit to historic former country schools … www.HistoricSchools.org

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, students learned the three R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic in the comfort of a one-room school house, many of which were located out in the country, in smaller rural communities and neighborhoods.
Later came schools like Fredericksburg Independent School District and the rural schools took their place in history.
Those smaller rural schools are now things of the past, but the sites and even memories can still be revisited, courtesy of a visit on the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail.

‘Schools Trail’
The “schools trail” gives visitors and residents alike a chance to venture into the earlier days of Texas, when German settlers came to the Texas Hill Country and established country schools to educate their children. Learn and tour some of Gillespie County’s oldest schools, featuring original furniture and some artifacts and supplies from when the schools were in operation.  
Among the old school houses on the driving trail are Cave Creek, Cherry Mountain, Cherry Spring, Crabapple, Grapetown, Junction, Lower South Grape Creek, Luckenbach, Meusebach Creek, Nebgen, Pecan Creek, Rheingold, Williams Creek (Albert), White Oak, Willow City and Wrede.
Due to the Gilmer-Aiken Laws, in the 1950s and 1960s, the schools were consolidated into the Fredericksburg Independent School District.
On January 23, 2006, the Gillespie County Commissioners Court established the Gillespie County Country Schools Trail. This trail links the 16 historic former rural schools with the Vereins Kirche, which is a replica of the first school built in 1847 in the county.  

‘Friends’
The Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools, Inc. in conjunction with several organizations, sponsors the driving and cycling trail and various activities throughout the year so that people can learn more about the county’s educational history.
The Friends consists of former students of the closed schools and area community residents.
Their mission statement is to preserve the past to enrich the future: to further the preservation and maintenance of historic community school buildings and improvements in Gillespie County; to support the activities of Gillespie County with respect to the preservation and maintenance of historic community school buildings and improvements in the County through assistance with fundraising and other means; to use and allow others to use such buildings and improvements for public purposes, by making such buildings and improvements available as community centers for public purposes.
    The properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and are members of the Country School Association of America National Schoolhouse Registry.

Open houses and other events
The 120-mile Trail Map directs visitors into the countryside to see one, several, or all schools. See early school BBQ pits, outdoor pavilions, stages and stage curtains, teacherages, tin schools, and two Presidential Schools. No two are alike.  Today they function as community and learning centers.  The schools are available to the public for social activities, including rentals such as birthday parties, classes, meetings, receptions, reunions, weddings, and rest stops for bicycle and auto tours.
The properties take turns holding open houses and other events throughout the year.  
For more information about the historic rural schools, call the Friends of Gillespie County Country Schools Secretary Frances Pressler Heimann Rech at 830-685-3321, e-mail info@historicschools.org, visit online at www.historicschools.org or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CountrySchools/.