{"nrhp_refnum":"05000389","name":"Cherry Spring School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5973 RM 2323","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fredericksburg","county":"Gillespie County","state":"TX","lat":30.46408876600003,"lon":-98.94876001499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-acre rural school complex about twelve miles north of Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, Texas, with a limestone schoolhouse built by community residents in 1885 and later ancillary buildings and structures.","why_significant":"It is nominated under Criterion A in the area of Education at the local level. The school operated from 1885 to 1962 and served as the social center of a dispersed farming and ranching community. It has changed little since the historic period and keeps a high degree of integrity. It is part of Gillespie County's unusually intact collection of rural schoolhouses.","narrative":"Cherry Spring School is a small rural school complex on the west side of RM 2323, about twelve miles north of Fredericksburg, Texas. Community members built its 23 by 31 foot limestone schoolhouse in April and May of 1885, after earlier classes had met in private homes. A 1936 pavilion with a stage that doubled as a second classroom, a 1938 barbecue pit, a cistern, a saddle shed and two privies were added later. Almost 400 students and 42 teachers passed through the school before it closed in 1962. Its importance lies in education and community life. Gillespie County's German-settled communities valued schooling, and many rural schools there kept operating into the 1950s and 1960s while also serving as social centers. Cherry Spring remains largely unaltered, with original desks, books, a painted stage curtain and a piano still in place. Its period of significance runs from 1885 to 1955, and it is a well-preserved example of rural education in the county.","period_of_significance":"1885-1955","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Closed as a school in 1962; now used as a community clubhouse and social center, with little alteration since closing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.400783-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/9720/40972098/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/05000389.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000389/c4dcb3bd7a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000389/c4dcb3bd7a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Renelibrary","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CherrySpring1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Renelibrary</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CherrySpring1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972098","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Spring_School_(Gillespie_County,_Texas)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5092474"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/gillespie-county/cherry-spring-school-05000389/"}