The Welford School is an all-black school that opened in Collin County in the early 1900s. Now, a community group and students are working to preserve its history.
FARMERSVILLE, Texas — If you drive down U.S. Highway 380 or Audie Murphy Parkway in Farmersville, you’ll drive by the Welford School.
In the early 1900s, the white, two-room building would serve as the school for all the Black children in the area until integration in 1965. In the 60 years since, the building has fallen into disrepair and questions around its future have surfaced.
This is where the Welford School Project Committee comes in, with a push to preserve not only the building but the history it represents.
“Well, everybody. My mother went here and if she lived she’d have been 100 years old and I mean it was just the history of everybody in Farmersville that’s the only place we had to go,” Karen Haynes, president of the committee, told WFAA when asked who attended the school.
Margaret Redwine, a Welford School alumni, remembered “we had a tough teachers … really tough.”
“You didn’t find many skipping classes and absentees,” Redwine added. “You didn’t find many in those days because all the preacher had to do, the teacher had to do, was tell your mama.”
Now, decades later, Farmersville High School students are working to share the story of the historic school after a proposal from their A/V teacher.
PHOTOS: A look at the history of The Welford School in North Texas
“We never knew about any of that, so after the class we went up to him and asked him if we can work on it,” Gisselle Duran, who just graduated, said.
Mariana Jimenez teamed up with Duran to shoot the interviews, build graphics and edit a trailer for an upcoming documentary on the school.
“It’s important because, just letting them tell their stories and hearing what they went through and how everything was for them,” Jimenez shared.
As years pass, more students who attended Welford are passing away. Not Redwine, though, who just celebrated her 99th birthday.
“I think it would be good for them to know how we came up,” Redwine nodded. “It was really a school of joy. We had a lot of fun. Especially during recess, because we played all types of games. Some I can’t even think about now, but it was really fun.”
Farmersville City Manager Ben White showed WFAA images of what a renewed Welford School would look like. The city owns the land and is working on its concept plan to apply for grants to create a community center there.
“There’s a lot of memories of the school and fond memories from people that went there,” White stated. “In the end, what we want to do is get some grants for the project, develop some enthusiasm from the locals in the area to try to push this project forward.”
When asked why she’s putting forth so much effort to save the story of the old Black school in Collin County, Haynes sighed, “Because so much of black history has not been preserved, you know? If we can preserve the darkest part of our history, we could definitely preserve, I guess a part of our community that was a light. It was a light in our community to go to school here.”
“Some of our history is painful, but we can’t forget it we can’t forget our history, you know what they say if you forget your history you’re doomed to repeat it so we have to acknowledge that our history and to also show the young generations that this is who we are, this is where we had to come from this is what we overcame,” Haynes added.
The City of Farmersville is celebrating Welford School Day at its Civic Center on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. You can learn more about the Welford School Project Committee here.