MARFA — The property transfer of the Blackwell School from the Marfa Independent School District to the National Parks Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Parks Service who will now gift the land to NPS, was completed this week.
In exchange for the property, the National Parks Foundation will donate $530,000 to Marfa ISD — the appraised value of the site. The foundation serves as the go-between because the NPS cannot legally purchase property.
The school board voted to approve a resolution on the property transfer on June 3 and signed a deed transfer and other closing documents at a meeting on June 24. Negotiations between the district, parks service, the Blackwell School Alliance and other entities regarding the ownership transfer have been underway since October 2022 when the Blackwell School — a de facto segregated school that served Mexican American students from 1909 to 1965 — was officially designated as a National Historic Site.
Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez said the land transfer process was protracted due to legal complications, but the school district was glad to see it finalized. “We were always positive about this. We always knew that we wanted this. We wanted Blackwell to be preserved as part of history,” Alferez said. “It’s a partnership that we still want to continue with Blackwell, with our school district.”
In order for the land transfer to happen, at least two leases had to be broken, among other complications. The district was leasing the building to the Blackwell School Alliance, a group formed in 2007 that runs the site as a museum, for $1/year. The district also leased Blackwell Park to the City of Marfa, who ran the site as a city park, for $1/year.
Alferez said the school board has not yet decided how to spend the $530,000 donation for the property, but it is a welcome windfall given the district’s tight finances. “We’re going into budget talks, so it’s good timing for us,” Alferez said.
Fort Davis National Historic Site Superintendent David Larson — who is acting as a liaison for Blackwell on behalf of the NPS — expressed appreciation for the school board for seeing the process through. He said the next, and very final, step is for the U.S. secretary of the interior to finalize paperwork, fully establishing Balckwell as a National Historic Site. It is unclear how long that process will take, he said.
“You won’t see the park service tomorrow opening up the doors of Blackwell School. You’ll still see the Blackwell School Alliance operating the park,” Larson explained. “There’s still a little bit more of a government procedure to follow.” Lason said a ribbon cutting, which top park officials will travel to Marfa for, is tentatively set for mid-September in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month. This week, the NPS held public meetings in Marfa to hear input on what community members envision for the park.
“Now we’re moving into planning, developing a foundation document that will describe the direction and interpretive themes of the park,” Larson said.
He said, for now, Fort Davis National Historic Site employees will continue to fill in at Blackwell until staff can be hired and an official budget for the park can be determined, ideally by this October. The NPS has generated five areas of improvement for the adobe structure itself, which are estimated to cost $8 million and take five years to complete, he said. Work includes removing concrete that was added to the building’s exterior and replacing it with lime plaster. Interior adobe walls which were knocked down over the years will also be added back.
Larson said the community will be informed and heavily involved with that work moving forward. “How can we use these years of work that are coming up to collaborate with architectural partner schools, adobe workshops and make sure the community knows exactly what we’re doing as we step into stabilizing Blackwell School,” Larson said.
Cristobal Lopez, Texas field representative for the National Parks Conservation Association, an organization working in tandem with the NPS on establishing Blackwell as a National Historic Site, said the land transfer is a “critical next step” in seeing the site preserved for future generations. “We are so thankful to the Marfa ISD board members and leaders at the National Park Service and National Park Foundation for their tireless efforts to make this happen,” Lopez said. “But most of all, we remain grateful for the Blackwell alumni who saved their school so that future generations can learn from this vital piece of Latino history.”