History of Robinson Hill School in Austin, Texas explained.

Austin Public Schools (now Austin ISD) allocated funds for a negro school to be built for black students living in East Austin in March 1883. Construction for this school to all summer to complete. At first, Robinson Hill School consisted of two rooms and later expanded to include four rooms inside of a two story building. It was a shotgun styled house. Robinson Hill School opened on the southeast corner of 10th Street & San Marcos Street in 1883. Teachers taught students in grades 1 through 10 at Robinson Hill School. was across the street from Robertson Hill School.

Heating for Robinson Hill School was provided by old potbelly stoves. Janitors would come fill the old potbelly stoves with coal and they would get red-hot. This proved to be a fire hazard as the school burned on several occasions.

Tax records indicate that the school owned Lots 1-5 of Block 8 by 1885. Most of this school was located on Block 8 in the Robinson Hill neighborhood. (Ref: Austin City Lot Register 1885: 130). 

 

This description of the Robinson Hill School by A. P. Wooldridge, superintendent of Austin Public Schools, was published in the Austin Daily Statesman in 1887.:

Our Public Schools: Their Condition and Their Wants.

“I said in my former article that the state of the colored schools "was a condition rather than a progress." This is in part an exact truth, for while we have a frame building on Robinson Hill neatly furnished, the house is not painted on the interior, and the grounds are unfenced; this is the only colored school building in really good condition.

Exactly the same state of affairs (children crowded onto backless benches) exists in Miss Beaulah Gibbs room on Robertson Hill. In these rooms the children are rather packed or penned than seated, to the great detriment of heath as well as manners. A. P. Woolridge”

(Ref: Austin Daily Statesman, June 2, 1887).


The initial location of Robinson Hill School was in an area with at least 4 surrounding Black communities. White residents continually complained about the effects of the school on their quality of life beginning in the early 20th century.

Robinson Hill burned in 1938. The school burned down due to red-hot coal in the old potbelly stoves. Heating for Robertson Hill School was still provided by old potbelly stoves and not central A/C  heating as the white schools were.

Robinson Hill School was located at the corner of 10th Street & San Marcos Street, Austin, Texas, US 78702.