Pleasant Hill Elementary Austin

Instead of the bricks and cement that make up this large building, the original was a one-room cedar building built with wood from Bastrop county. It wasn't received well and was burned in the fall of 1859. While no one knows exactly what caused the fire, stories abound ranging from boys wanting to play hooky, a neighboring old lady who would accuse students of chasing her chickens to irate native

Americans who still roamed the area, who claimed they disliked "too many night pow wows of the white men." At the time, Austin was little more than a town and a frontier post. Feeling the need for a school in the area, a small group of freemasons petitioned the Grand Lodge of the Texas Onion Creek to build a new lodge. Number 220 met in a one room log cabin in a boggy creek known as the Union School. Fearing more arson, the Union School used native white limestone quarried from Oak Hill. The construction took a little longer than expected, after the builder halted construction when the Civil War was declared. At times the school was boys only but at other times it was used for girls. That was until the school was finally made coed (for boys and girls.) In 1869, the Masons bought out stockholders of the Union School, and named their own members as trustees and changed the name of the school to Pleasant Hill. But even though the Masons owned the buildings, they still let the people use the lower floor as a school and church. This was not unusual because a lot of Texas lodges supported schools. The building was added onto in 1908, but it remained a one room school until 1935 when the country built a new school one mile away to satisfy the state school requirements. In the middle of 1950s, the Pleasant Hill community faced educational crisis: the number of kids had grown
to 300. There was a vote to get a new school and the vote won 133 to 105. Arguments over independence, a plan
to add 8 classrooms, and possible tax increase split the small community. Voters went to the polls four times to decide the school's fate. In the midst of the commotion, AISD trusties suggested consolidation. George A. Goeth was principal at Pleasant Hill at the time of the consolidation. Since then, the school has seen a number of leaders : Floyd A. Boyce (1962- 1963), William Roy Kitchens (1963-1966), John E. Donaldson (1966-1967), Wayne A. King (1967-1977), and Mildred Fay Beyer (1977-1983). AISD air-conditioned the school and added a gym. Amazingly,
with South Austin's growth and the districts successful passage of the $210 million bond issue, Pleasant Hill was high on the list for another new school. On September 13,1984 the foundation was laid for the 3.69 million dollar facility adjacent to the school. A lot of children participated in the ground breaking ceremony, reading essays, releasing balloons and filling a time capsule which is under the school "for the next 50 years," said Principal Beyer. The school opened in January 1986, with an enrollment of 820. It was a cool coincidence that the ceremony took place on the school's quasi-centennial (125 years) anniversary since the masons petitioned for a new lodge, so they didn't have to walk across a river from the tiny log cabin to an almost $4 million school.