The International and Great Northern Railroad developed Cotulla in 1881, and the first school opened on this site in 1885 with classes for primary, intermediate, and advanced students. W.W. Sloan, M.P. Kerr, and Joseph Cotulla were trustees, and S.F. Williams, J.M. Gunning, and E.A. Williams were the first teachers. After lightning struck the first schoolhouse and it burned to the ground, a former house was moved to the site, its porch removed and a bell added, and it became the next school building. County teacher institutes and summer normal schools were held here during the summer months. The site served Cotulla's Caucasian schoolchildren until a new brick school was built on Tilden Street in 1908.