History of Burditt School in Austin, Texas almost forgotten.

Burditt School is one of the many forgotten schools of Austin, Texas and Travis County that only a few are aware of and only longtime local citizens know about. Not much is known about the Burditt School.

Now the Burditt School is NOT to be confused with the Burditt Prairie School that is located in the Montopolis neighborhood of Southeast Austin. This Burditt School is entirely different from that one.


G. W. Burditt donated land to Travis County for a school during the late 19th century. The school would be called Burditt School and was built on land donated by G. W. Burditt. G. W. Burditt owned parcels of land where Ferguson Lane (sometimes known as Ferguson Road) is located today.


 

Burditt School was named after the Burditt chalk marl along Little Walnut Creek which is downstream from Cameron Road. Limestone can be found in the Burditt chalk marl. The building for Burditt School was built from limestone from the chalk marl along Little Walnut Creek. Burditt chalk marl is considered lithologically transitional to the Taylor marl.
(Ref: US geologic names lexicon, USGS Bull. 896, Page 295)

Possibly the school opened in 1895. The Burditt School was located south of the settlement of Sprinkle, Texas southeast of the intersection at Ferguson Lane & Cameron Road.

By 1896, Burditt School was fully operated by the Sprinkle School District which operated public schools in the settlement of Sprinkle, Texas. In its first year of operation, 10 students had been enrolled at Burditt School. Burditt School started appearing on topographical road maps beginning in 1898. The school still appeared on road maps of Travis County in 1902.
(Ref: 1898 Travis County roads, MASTER MAP precincts 1-4)

By 1923, Burditt School had 20 students enrolled. The school still appeared on road maps of Travis County in 1923. Burditt School was operated by the Sprinkle School District before being consolidated by Pflugerville ISD.

The school stopped appearing on maps in 1932. Burditt School was consolidated into Pflugerville ISD in 1932. The Sprinkle School District along with Burditt School was consolidated into Pflugerville ISD in 1942 after the Sprinkle Negro School and Sprinkle White School (Sprinkle School) were demolished.