How Lovejoy began…

Long before Lovejoy became Lovejoy there were several rural private schools that educated the children of the frontier era about 145 years ago and more.  Some of the very early schools in the area dated back to the early 1800s.  The early schools are the McKinney School that was founded by John Meyers McKinney (1781-1847) that was located on 1378 close to Lucas City Hall.  The McKinney School is thought to be the initial school that predated the Willow Springs School. 

Many of the early private schools were formed from initial church congregations.  The Orchard Gap Primitive Baptist Church was historically linked to the Forest Grove Community that later became part of Lucas.  In 1853 The Orchard Gap Church was founded and the Orchard Gap School soon followed which was located on the corner of Country Club Road/FM 1378 and White Rock Trail that is part of White Rock Creek Estates in Lucas. One of the original teachers of the Orchard Gap School was James Curtis Lowery for whom Lowery Crossing was named after just north of Lucas and Fairview and to the east of McKinney.

Other schools from the mid to late 1800s that now feed into the Lovejoy family of schools included the Stinson School better known by it’s nickname as the “Who’d-A-Thought-It” School that was located on Stinson just north of Parker in Lucas.  There was also the Forest Grove School, Lick Springs School, the Winningkoff School that was located at Orr Road and Winningkoff from 1884-1949, and of course the Lovejoy School.  Alumni from all these schools lived in what is presently known as Lovejoy ISD even though the school building may now have been located in another school district today.  The current school district lines were only set about a century ago during the early 1900s, and a lot of these little community schools are from the 1800s.

In 1864 to be exact, the first private school directly linked to Lovejoy, known as Willow Springs School, opened near the southwest intersection of Estelle Lane and Gold Dust Trail in the current Huntwick Estates by a spring surrounded by a thicket of willow trees when the town of Lucas was previously known as Willow Springs, Texas. John and Martha Spurgin sold the 3-acre school site for $1 to J. M. McKinney, Aaron Snider and Jacob Faulkner who were the trustees of School District No, 20. 

The original Willow Springs School was located down the street along the north side of Hart Elementary.  This is not to be confused with the second middle school to be opened in the future for Lovejoy ISD that will be named Willow Springs Middle School and will be located on W. Lucas Road about a mile southwest of the original school.

Willow Springs School

Twenty years later, in 1884, the Willow Springs School became public, and the framed school house was moved to the South side of W. Lucas Road/FM1378 by a team of horses just to the East of the old First Christian Church of Lucas and was renamed the Lucas School, but it took a number of years for the locals to start calling Willow Springs the Lucas School.  No one seems to recall exactly when everyone starting referring to the school by it’s official name “the Lucas School” because different people started incorporating the name change at different times, but the majority of the people in the area seemed to have started to refer to the Lucas School by the changed name sometime between 1922 and 1936 according to former students.  In July of 1884, the Collin County Commissioner’s Court ordered the establishment of another school to the area known as the Forest Grove School.  The Forest Grove School was located by the current day Forest Grove Christian Church and Fitzhugh Cemetery at Country Club Road (FM 1378) and Forest Grove Road in Lucas.  In July of 1884, James M. Snider and his wife, Sarah Jane Fitzhugh Snider, donated a plot of land just northwest of the Forest Grove Church for the Forest Grove School.

During these early years, a third school was also built very close to the site of Lovejoy’s first middle school, Sloan Creek Middle School.  The third school was known as Lick Springs School established in 1871, and was located just north of Sloan Creek and east of Country Club Road (FM 1378) on a hill close to Camino Real in Fairview, Texas. Lick Springs got its name from the natural salty springs that fed into Sloan Creek that were full of salt deposits.  Because of the large salt deposits, wild animals from the area namely deer and buffalo would lick the salt deposits from the spring making large holes in the creek bed of Sloan Creek.  Some of the largest holes were three to four feet deep and were extremely smooth from the licking of the larger animals and the rubbing from the animals’ cheeks, head and shoulders as they reached to lick the salt deposits.

The original Lick Springs School was a log cabin with no windows or a fireplace, so they didn’t have school in the winter when it was too cold because they didn’t have a way to build a fire to keep warm without a fireplace.  Fortunately for the early Lick Springs children, winter is very short in the Lucas/Fairview area, so they didn’t really miss too much school.  Later, the log cabin was replaced by a school building made from boxing planks.

In 1912, the Lucas School went through major remodeling where they tore down the original one story framed school house and built a larger two-story school that remained a central part of Lucas for many years to come.

Lucas School House

1920s Lucas School

The Lovejoy School was created in 1917 by the consolidation of both the Forest Grove School and Lick Springs School, and the Lovejoy Common School District, Number 32 was established on July 2, 1917.  This same year, “The Little Red School House” was built which symbolizes the Lovejoy school district today. 

The district and school were built and named in 1917 for Mrs. J. L. Lovejoy, a local clubwoman who promoted many educational causes for the area.  In the “Little Red School House,” grades 1st– 9th were taught in four classrooms.  Mrs. Lovejoy donated books to the school library and left the school $1,000 upon her death in 1939.  Because of her interest and devotion to the school, the school board had named the school in her honor.  Mrs. Lovejoy was the grandmother to Wilkins and Lovejoy Comegys who were prominent businessmen in McKinney.  Comegys Creek is named after their family and the large

El Dorado development of McKinney is on the Comegys’ homestead.

May 12, 1921, Lovejoy School

During the early years, Lovejoy School had a stable on campus where the children would leave their horses, mules and donkeys during the school day.  Some of the children’s animals would wonder home during the school day, but would always return to carry their little owners back home from school at the end of each school day.

On a blustering Texas spring afternoon on Sunday, April 27, 1958, a tornado struck the Lovejoy School and left the school in a deplorable state with the roof gone and lots of damage from the rain, hail and wind.  Many thought that this would be the end of the Lovejoy School because attendance was low and schools were closing anyway all around Collin County and other rural districts throughout the state.  Lovejoy had become more than just a school; it had become the epicenter for the entire community. After the tornado struck, all the Lovejoy students were moved to their arch rivals at the Lucas School while repairs were being made to the Little Red School House.  Through lots of hard work and determination, the community citizens, school trustees and lots of others in this rural community came together and rebuilt “The Little Red School House” stronger and better than it had ever been including the original school bell that had been found in a nearby bar ditch after the tornado struck, and with the remodeling, Lovejoy got it’s first indoor plumbing.  The staff and students were thrilled to leave the old outhouse good bye.

Lovejoy’s Little Red School House, picture taken 2008, 50 years after the tornado destroyed the first “Little Red Schoolhouse.”

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, rural schools were diminishing with the lack of children in these areas. Both the Lovejoy School, with an enrollment hovering around 30 students with just two teachers for grades 1st– 8th, and the Lucas School were in danger of closing, so the community decided to consolidate the two rival schools after the reconstruction of the Lovejoy School from the tornado.  The Lovejoy School building was chosen over the Lucas School building simply because it was a newly constructed facility with indoor plumbing!

Mrs. Estelle Spurgin had returned to teach at the Lucas School until its demise.  Sadly in 1958-59, the Lucas School was closed after 94 years of operation as a rural school in this community because the Lovejoy School had better facilities from the recent renovations following the tornado and the addition of indoor plumbing.  The Lucas School children were then bused 4 miles to the Lovejoy School. The Lucas School and Lovejoy consolidated which increased the Lovejoy Common School District to 19 square miles.  Meanwhile, the Lucas School Building became the community center for the city of Lucas.

There were two teachers at the Lovejoy School in the 1950s and 1960s.  The first was Mrs. Billy McDonald who hired in 1950 and taught grades 1st– 8th.  The principal and other 1st– 8th grade teacher was Mrs. Estelle Spurgin who remained Principal of the school until her death on November 13, 1972.

Finally, in 1966 the first Lovejoy “boom” began, and a third teacher was hired and the first expansion of the school was made, and the north wing was built to the original facility.  By the fall of 1968, student enrollment had risen to 67, and a fourth teacher was added to the staff.  Two years later, in the fall of 1970, a fifth teacher was added to the Lovejoy School to meet the demand of the steadily increasing enrollment of the district.

Sadly, on May 8, 1970, the Lucas School building was lost forever after a lit cigarette caused a fire to a nearby construction site with Texas high winds the flames jumped to the Lucas Community Center that was housed in the old Lucas School building and burnt the old school house down to the ground.

In March of 1973, the community passed a bond issued in the amount of $170,000 to purchase additional land to increase the campus size and build a new 10-classroom building.  The Estelle Spurgin Elementary School building was competed during the spring of 1974 and was named in memory of the longtime Principal and teacher of Lovejoy School who had passed away just over a year earlier.

Lovejoy Elementary/Estelle Spurgin picture taken in 2008 - 35 years after construction

After years of financial troubles due to the tax rate of rural school districts tied to low county rates, a Special Bill in the Texas Legislature of 1975 allowed common school districts like Lovejoy to set their own tax rates that allowed Lovejoy to gain the resources necessary to accommodate the steadily increasing growth of the district through the late 1960s into the 1970s.  Additionally, the State Legislature abolished all “common school districts” in September 1978 and Lovejoy became the Lovejoy Independent School District, (Lovejoy ISD) which it is known by as today.

Soon after Lovejoy became an Independent School District, in 1979 it was apparent that additional facilities were going to be needed for the continued growth, the current congestion at the Estelle Spurgin Elementary/Lovejoy School and because of new state requirements for school buildings in the state of Texas.

Finally, a bond referendum of $785,000 was passed after the initial proposal failed with the voters to construct another 10 classrooms and a gymnasium.  The Spurgin building was remodeled to add more space for the administration including a teacher workroom and to expand and improve the school library.

At the end of the 1980-1981 school year, marked the end of an era for Lovejoy ISD when Mrs. Billy McDonald, one of the two original school teachers from 1950 when there were only 30 students at Lovejoy, retired from the district after teaching students at the Lovejoy School for 31 years.

In the summer of 1983, Lovejoy School Board Trustee, Marcie Moseley contacted the state of Texas and had the original; “Little Red School House” designated a “State Historical Site” by the Texas Land Commission with a historical marker denoting the Lovejoy School as a Texas Historical Commission.

There is also a historical marker (circa 1992) in front of the Forest Grove Christian Church and Fitzhugh Cemetery close to where the original Forest Grove School was located.

By early 1984 the growing pains continued, so in May a bond referendum was passed in the amount of $975,000 for the construction of 12 additional classrooms and a new cafeteria to all begin in September 1984.

A decade later in 1993 & 1994 enrollment continued to increase, so a new library and clinic were constructed as well as 10 more classrooms, a workroom and a teachers’ lounge.

Since 1917 and subsequently 1974, there haven’t been any new schools or buildings added to the Lovejoy Independent School District until the opening of Hart Elementary School in August of 2000.

The beginning of a new era…new schools are built…

After a 6.5 million dollar bond was approved in 1998, the 2nd elementary school in Lovejoy ISD would be built and was dedicated on August 27, 2000.  The new school was named after a long-time Lovejoy ISD resident and former school board member, Joe V. Hart.  This second school was located at the corner of Country Club Road/FM 1378 and Estelle Lane and housed Kindergarten through 6th grades.

Joe V. Hart Elementary School, Lucas, Texas

Shortly thereafter, the Texas state legislature changed it’s funding arrangements for secondary education where Lovejoy ISD had traditionally paid Allen ISD tuition to educate the Lovejoy ISD students from 7th through 12th grades.  Following the change in state policy, both Allen ISD residence and Lovejoy ISD residence voted overwhelmingly on February 1, 2003, to maintain their existence as separate independent school districts and to come up with a plan to continue educating Lovejoy ISD high school students through 2009 in Allen ISD while Lovejoy ISD developed a secondary education program within the district and build an infrastructure and classrooms to support an ever expanding district.

In April 2003, after the initial vote to maintain two independent school districts, Lovejoy ISD voters passed a $61 million bond referendum to purchase land and build a complete high school (Lovejoy High School), middle school (Sloan Creek Middle School) and a third elementary school (Puster Elementary) with additional funds to purchase land for a 2nd middle school and land for two additional elementary schools within the district. 

The beginning of Lasting Traditions…

Lovejoy High School, Lucas, Texas – additionally housed Lovejoy Middle School (2006-2008)

With Lovejoy High School came The Graduate Program, which includes:  Intellectually Equipped; Open to the Challenges of Learning; Well Rounded; Engaged in a Healthy Lifestyle; Fair and Respectful; and Working for Justice through Community Service.

In 2006, Lovejoy High School opened to educate grades 6th-9th.  For the first two years of operation, Lovejoy Middle School was within the campus of Lovejoy High School which had just 9th grade, Freshmen it’s first year of operation, and they became sophomores their second year.

In August of 2008, Lovejoy ISD begins the 2008-2009 school year with three elementary schools:  Puster Elementary in Fairview; Lovejoy Elementary School in Allen; and Hart Elementary School in Lucas, Texas.  There will be the first middle school within it’s own campus: Sloan Creek Middle School in Fairview, Texas, which is located near the original site of the Lick Springs School during the early history of the district nearly 100 years ago.  During the 2008-2009 school year, Lovejoy High School will house only high school students in grades 9th – 11th in Lucas, and the first graduating class will be the class of 2010.

During the infancy of the secondary program in Lovejoy ISD, the district has maintained a state Exemplary rating for all campuses and as a district as a whole that is a very high distinction which is only held by a select few of the top school districts in the entire state of Texas.

The dynamic future ahead…

In 2007, a 78.5 million dollar bond election passed to build a 2nd middle school in Lucas that is slated to open in the Fall of 2010 or 2011 depending on demographics.  The second middle school is named Willow Springs Middle School which is located on W. Lucas Road about a mile west on W. Lucas Road from the original site of the first school in Lovejoy ISD, Willow Springs School circa 1864 which 20 years later became the Lucas School. 

Sloan Creek Middle School circa 2008 located in Fairview, Texas

Additionally in 2008, 20 new classrooms will be added to Lovejoy High School with additional fine arts rooms including ensemble, percussion and choir rooms and conversion of the current choir room to an orchestra room.  For athletics, there will be an auxiliary field house, a multipurpose athletic facility, additional parking lot spaces, and stadium seating and tennis courts.  There will also be covered walkways added to the back of the high school and technology additions throughout the campus. 

With the 2007 bond issue, there are major renovations taking place at Lovejoy Elementary.

Lovejoy Elementary School’s elevation beginning 2008-2009 school year

Along with some additional construction at Hart Elementary, to make both of the elementary campuses comparable from a technological aspect as well as an aesthetic view comparable to the new Puster Elementary School.

From 2008-2013, Lovejoy ISD is expected to grow by an additional 1500 students in just five years.  Land has been procured by the district for a 4th elementary school to be located on Estates Parkway in Lucas, Texas that is expected to open during the fall of 2012 or 2013. 

Lovejoy ISD is history in the making, and it is great to be part of it!

Retold By Melissa McIntosh Hodge

11

I   The Spirit of the Little Red Schoolhouse; A History of Lovejoy I.S.D.

II Texas Land Commission

III Attendance at School Board Meetings and Committee positions

IV Lovejoy ISD and Lovejoy High School Websites

V Numerous Conversation with former Lucas School and Lovejoy School students

VI History of Lucas Texas from edswebshop.com

VII Mrs. John Shipp, History of Lucas School, 2004-05

VIII Ed Phillips, History of Lucas-Lucas, Texas:  Personal website compilation, 2004

IX Gwendyn Pettit, Lick Springs, Forest Grove combined to form Lovejoy-Allen, Texas: The Allen American, November 3, 1991

X Conversations with former Lucas School children:  Donna Cameron and her sister Bobbie Jo (B.J.), October 1994 

XI Fairview, Texas, A Brief History, May 2006, Prepared by John Godwin