1923 - Irving Consolidated School Cornerstone - Irving, OK
N 34° 02.518 W 098° 03.131
14S E 587487 N 3767214
The only tangible remnant of the old Irving Consolidated School is its cornerstone, in front of a historical marker noting this as the school's location where E 2050 and N 2770 Roads meet, northeast of Ryan, OK.
Waymark Code: WM11RY2
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/13/2019
Views: 1
Like so many school-related markers across the state, the granite marker is protected by a brick enclosure, and it features a depiction of the school building, along with a bobcat, presumably their mascot. It reads:
Irving Consolidated
School
1923 1957
Held in the curving arm of Red River lies an agricultural area as rich in alluvial soil as the Valley of the Nile and living on these farms are people just as rich in heart. J.M. Dyer First Supt. of Irving
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The school's cornerstone stands in front of the enclosure, referencing "Consolidated School District No. 50", with "1923" as the construction year. Just a few feet away is an older marker mounted on a concrete slab, but besides having an opening year of one year earlier, it doesn't really say much:
Irving
School
Open 1922
Closed 1957
Commissioner
Bill Griffin
1990
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The Irving Baptist Church across the road was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and the property's Registration Form is a good read for some information about the Irving community.
The Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation was opened up to a lottery in 1901, resulting in a land run that populated the area. By 1903, there was a church about six miles away in the Lookout community, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which took on the name "White Chapel" after they built a sanctuary -- the current Irving Baptist Church sanctuary -- in 1917. When the Irving Consolidated School was built here, families from the area communities moved to Irving, and White Chapel (which became Irving Baptist Church) made the journey, too, as their membership numbers dwindled.
Irving itself included a school, gas station, two stores, a community center, the Baptist church, and eventually a parsonage, but despite having survived the Depression and the Dust Bowl storms, by the 1950s, relocation to the cities and difficulties in maintaining local farms prompted the closure of the Irving Consolidated School in 1957. Today, Irving remains a rural community, but much smaller in size with less activity. Be careful as you drive those county roads, as they can be bumpy when dry and impassable when wet.
For those who keep track, Chuck Norris was born in Ryan, OK.