The Great Gate of Hollister - Solved

We had toured Hollister on two separate occasions before. The mystery of the Great Wall continued to occupy our thoughts over the past year. We decided another trip to Hollister was necessary. Returning to Hollister found the wall still standing but with no green forest of foliage protecting it from exploration this time. The weeds and prairie grass had not yet recovered from the uncharacteristicly lengthy winter of 2007/08 and investigation of the open area behind the wall was possible. This had been impossible on our earlier trip. The layout of much of the original building was now clearly visible. The building was much larger than originally thought. Much larger. At what appeared to be the rear of the building are concrete steps leading down to a concrete walled cellar room. It’s was probably a storm cellar, a requirement of all early buildings in the American southwest. Standing on what seems the rear foundation and looking back at the standing front wall, the depth of the original building is clear. But since much of the foundation has been dredged up in chunks and piled about, the width is a bit harder to determine but it must have been considerable. The dip in the foreground is the storm cellar again. Looking around at the less than 60 residences in this relatively remote Hollister community, it’s clear that they probably live here because they prefer to be undisturbed. Respecting that, it took a trip to Frederick, Oklahoma, the county seat a few miles to the west, to finally find out about this lonely façade standing in the tiny town of Hollister, Oklahoma. At the court house in Frederick, Oklahoma, the county clerk’s office suggested a visit to the county museum just next door. There we met with the very helpful curator and a perfect example of our friendly Southwestern Character. She solved all of the mystery. The wall held the front doors of the district school. She even remembered it and located a picture. And here it is. The cornerstone was laid November 14, 1922 and the first school year in the new building was 1923-24. Note the chickens in the lower right corner. The following years saw many students attending the combination grade school and high school. By 1963, however attendance to high school classes dropped to less than 40 and the school held classes only for grades 1 through 6. In 1968 the school was closed after only 46 years of educating children. The building was torn down and the bricks were used to build this row of apartment buildings in Frederick, Oklahoma a few miles away. So...What is the answer? Why is this still here? The front entrance of the building, as if in protest to its own loss, resisted all efforts to bring it down. The pillars still stand. This building stands about where the chickens are in the above black and white photo of the original building. This is looking straight south. Turning right and looking straight west would be the vista in the picture just above.

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