Palacios Colored School

PALACIOS (MATAGORDA COUNTY)

Originally only two rooms, this building was the grade school for Black children in Palacios in 1933. In 1939 the school building was moved to its current location and enlarged to accommodate additional students. It served as the city’s only Black school until integration in 1963, at which time the building was closed and decades of deferred maintenance led to deterioration. In 2011, the Palacios Community Coalition acquired the endangered structure and began rehabilitating it as funding allowed. Today, the building is home to the Sanford Community Center.

In 2022, the project received a $35,000 grant from Preservation Texas’s Rural African American Heritage Grants Program. This support made possible critical foundation repairs, the replacement of corrugated wall panels with historically appropriate wood siding, window restoration, and the installation of two new exterior doors.

The Palacios Colored School building circa 1930s and today.

School children pose at the Palacios Colored School circa 1940.

Interior of the Palacios Colored School building (now Sanford Community Center).

Community gathering at the Sanford Community Center.

Educational event at the Sanford Community Center.