Dayton Historical Society
111 West Houston St., Dayton, Texas
Tour Locations of Dayton Stars
Museum
Society
City of Dayton
MUSEUMS
As of July 2017, there are two museums within the city limits of Dayton - the Dayton Old School Museum and the Colbert-Rosenwald School Museum. Soon forthcoming are the Dayton Sports Hall of Fame Museum and the Dayton Police and Fire Museum.
Visitation hours are Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm. The Colbert-Rosenwald School Museum is open the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month from 10 am to 2 pm.
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In use 1900 - 1910
The museum has a hallway & 2 large rooms
Back view of school
In use 1900 - 1910
Dayton Old School Building/Museum
111 West Houston Street
Dayton's two-room schoolhouse from the fall of 1900 to the spring of 1910 opened with 35 students and 2 teachers in grades 1-7. It was originally located where the present-day Dayton Post Office now sits. In 1909, a larger two-story brick school was built on the same block. Then in 1911, the "Old School" was sold and moved to its present site across the street where it was used as a rental property for several years.
In 1923, it was the residence of the Walter Jamison family until his wife Ivy T. died in 1965. Jamison's heirs rented out the property to the Westmorelands from 1983 to 2000 for an antique shop. Just prior it being demolished by the City, the Dayton Historical Society purchased and restored the building. The dedication ceremony was April 14, 2007.
Jamison Log Cabin Building
111 West Houston Street
The latest addition to the Dayton Old School Museum is an authentic log cabin built circa mid 1800s. The cabin was acquired by W.T. Jamison in the early 1920s when he purchased the land on which it sat located about 1 mile southeast of the French Cemetery. It had been the home of sharecroppers as recently as 1940. The J.R. (Bob) Jamison family moved the cabin to their Sherwood home backyard where it had a variety of uses from Boy Scout hut to office for son Pete Jamison.
In 2016, Mary Beth Jamison and her children Pete and Ann donated the log cabin to the Dayton Historical Society which moved and restored the cabin under the guidance of Dell Brown of Livingston who has built and restored a number of log cabins to original structure.
Colbert-Rosenwald School Museum
231 South Colbert Street
Partly funded by the Rosenwald Foundation (grant from Julius Rosenwald for the construction of over 5,000 schools for primarily African-American students), this school was built in 1933 and was originally called the Dayton Colored School. It was renamed in 1935 for Annie E. Colbert who came to Dayton in 1892 to teach African American students.
She was hired by W.F. Blair who owned and operated a sawmill 3 miles north of Dayton and who also wanted a school for his employees' children. Colbert and her older students built a wood-sided school in this vicinity and she taught there until 1914.
Although some Colbert buildings were demolished in 2010, the original Rosenwald School was restored and opened to the public as a museum in February 2011.
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