History of Pleasant Valley School in Austin, Texas revisited.

Pleasant Valley School opened up as a schoolhouse where school was held inside a log cabin. The log cabin was built in 1867. Pleasant Valley School was located on land owned by Thomas Hughell Walden called Old Walden Place off modern day intersection FM 2222 & Loop 360. School was held in this log cabin from 1867 until 1919. Years of operation for this school were from 1867 to 1968.

The Pleasant Valley School burned down to the ground in 1885. This led a dispute in land titles over who owned the land where Pleasant Valley School located. The school itself was located on a flat. Eventaully the school itself was rebuilt.


Pleasant Valley School later opened up as a schoolhouse for Austin ISD (then known as Austin Public Schools) in 1919 as a one story two-room wooden-framed schoolhouse that would be later on converted into a three-room wooden-framed schoolhouse in what was considered then as rural Travis County. Years of operation for this school were from 1919 to 1968.

The land was considered to be very poor by county and city officials as the Northwest Hills neighborhood and Allandale was sparsely settled due to the mountainous hills alongside the rocky limestone formations. Lands were used for farming and ranch. Most of the citizens living in the Northwest Hills neighborhood and in Allandale were very poor back then. The flat yet somewhat mountainous hills alongside the rocky limestone formations alongside Northwest Hills was a perfect ideal location for a school to be built on.

During the summer of 1919, people from the Allandale and Northwest Hills neighborhoods voted bonds within an amount of $2,000 dollars build a new modern two-room schoolhouse. 1919 was the year Pleasant Valley School District was formed. The vote was unanimous due to their desires for a better school. It was a cry for help. A cry for better educational facilities. Thomas Hughell Walden was the man instrumental in getting Austin Public Schools to establish Pleasant Valley School. He and several other petitioned city officials and county officials to build a new schoolhouse in the Pleasant Valley/Northwest Hills community.

When the bonds reached the Attorney General's office for inspection, they could not be approved.  The bonds to build a new school were rejected. Only $500 dollars in bonds could be legally issued for construction of Pleasant Valley School. The tax base of the district was simply too small. The new schoolhouse was not built. Instead an old was provided with a new roof and a new floor along with 2 extra windows. The Pleasant Valley School District had a 50¢ cent school tax which produced only $91.83 per year, which in turn was only $4.84 per student of free-school age.

Pleasant Valley School first served as an elementary school. Later Pleasant Valley School became a K-12 school. Pleasant Valley School served as school for students living in the neighborhoods of Northwest Hills, Allandale, West Austin, Courtyard, Spicewood, Pleasant Valley, Spicewood Mesa, and Twin Mesa neighborhoods. Even students from the Eanes School District attended Pleasant Valley School despite living in Westlake.


Unfortunately the one story school would face another tragedy. The school burned down again in the year of 1931. Fortunately however, the school was able to rebuilt during the same year following after being burned down to a flat surface. 1931 was also the same time where the school became accredited receiving accreditation from the State of Texas.


The school would not live on forever. It too faced a decline as the city of Austin grew around it.
Due to declining enrollment and imminent domain, Pleasant Valley School District was closed and consolidated into Austin ISD sending the remaining students to continue their education in nearby neighborhood schools in Austin ISD school district. Pleasant Valley School District was closed in 1968.

In 1968, Pleasant Valley School was demolished by imminent domain to make right of way for a new Loop 360. That Loop 360 route that would eventually become a highway to serve West Austin neighborhoods such as Courtyard, Allandale, Spicewood, Pleasant Valley, and Northwest Hills. City of Austin used imminent domain to construct Loop 360 where Pleasant Valley School was at. By 1970, traces of where the building of Pleasant Valley School was once located has all but disappeared. Pleasant Valley School was located at the intersection of Loop 360 & FM 2222 currently runs in modern day Austin.