Many residents who lived in common school districts throughout Texas in the early 1900's voluntarily elected to raise their own taxes to assure better schools for their children. The Commissioners' Court of Tarrant County, Texas, organized 84 common school districts in 1884, and Bedford Common School District No. 33 was among them. Its taxpaying citizens voted overwhelmingly on August 1, 1914, to approve the issuance of ten $500 bonds to finance the construction of a schoolhouse. Milton Moore, an early supporter of public education who played a pivotal role in the creation of the Bedford College, conveyed a four-acre tract of land formerly owned by the college to the county for the new school site. Charles Carmichael Estill and his son, Frank Thomas Estill, who owned a lumberyard and building supply in the city of Grapevine, Texas, served as building contractors. Their names are listed on the surviving schoolhouse cornerstone along with the names of three trustees: Wesley Bryant Simmons, President; William Reese Fitch, Secretary; and Hiram C. Spencer.

At the time, Bedford was dispersed and rural in character, most of its residents were truck farmers who grew a variety of fruits and vegetables, and the Bedford School was the focal point of the community. In its earliest years, eleven grades of children were taught in four first floor classrooms. The upstairs auditorium was used for spelling bees, school programs and community meetings, which included those of the Bedford Home Demonstration Club. Students participated in basketball, baseball and football.

The era of most profound change in Bedford occurred during and immediately following World War II. Defense contractors and new military bases were established in Tarrant County and triggered explosive growth in the area midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, which became known as the Mid-Cities. A series of bond elections were passed during the 1950's to keep pace with community growth. Funds from the sale of these bonds financed the construction of a restroom addition onto the rear of the first floor (1952), a cafeteria on the west side of the building (1952), an additional classroom on the east side of the building (1954), and a gymnasium to the west of the cafeteria (1956). Additional renovations completed in 1958 included replacement of the original wooden windows with smaller-sized metal sash windows.

A narrow vote (212-189) by Bedford's citizens on November 1, 1958, led to the annexation of the Bedford Common School District by the Hurst-Euless Independent School District. This consolidation allied Bedford with its neighboring, similar-sized cities of Euless and Hurst and marked Bedford's emergence as one of the "Mid-Cities" within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

The Bedford School served the community's needs until 1969 when the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District closed the facility and relocated its students to the newly-constructed Bell Manor Elementary School. The school district maintained the abandoned facility as a garage and warehouse until 1973 when the schoolhouse and its surrounding acreage were sold to the City of Bedford. The city used the former schoolhouse as a service center until the city service center was built in March, 1991.

Fire broke out on the second story of the building in January of 1991. Arson was later determined to be the cause. Bedford Fire Chief E. M. Bilger, a former Bedford School student, supervised the department as flames were extinguished. Flammability was no doubt enhanced by early custodial practices of using a linseed and sawdust mixture to maintain the wooden floors. Although damage to the masonry walls was relatively minor, interior finishes on the second floor and the entire roof were completely destroyed.

A sign of hope emerged when the City of Bedford as owner of the building partnered with the Bedford Historical Committee, which was organized in 1985 as the volunteer group committed to restoration of the schoolhouse. Professional services were provided by the architectural firm of ArchiTexas and general contractors Mart, Inc., who partnered in the process to restore the fire-ravaged structure to its origins as an important physical, social, educational and cultural landmark. A three-phased project would accomplish this mission:

1. Phase 1, begun in 1993, was governed by the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Properties and included selective demolition of non-original additions, asbestos abatement and site clean up. Exterior masonry was rebuilt and re-pointed to exact historical design and chemically cleaned to reveal the original Globe brick..

2. Phase II returned the schoolhouse interior to its original configuration. Four large first-floor classrooms, two on each side of a wide central hall, and a stairway leading to the second story auditorium were replicated using finish materials found in the original construction such as lath and plaster walls, ornamental pressed metal ceilings, transom-topped cypress doors equipped with Parkman closures, zinc-lined wooden-sash windows, and pine flooring. Electrical outlets were incorporated into the floors so as not to distract from the plaster wall finishes since electricity did not reach rural Bedford until the late 1930's.

3. Phase III placed the schoolhouse in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and with the requirements of the United States Department of the Interior for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. A two-story essential addition linked by glass to the north wall of the original schoolhouse was constructed under guidelines approved by the Texas Historical Commission to house an elevator, restrooms, and gathering and gallery space.

The Bedford School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on August 26, 1997, under Criterion A. A significant physical and cultural landmark in the City of Bedford, the 1914-15 building stands as one of the last vestiges of the rural development pattern of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and represents the dispersed rural communities that metropolitan growth has largely obliterated in the region.

The restored Old Bedford School re-opened to its community as an educational and cultural community center under an agreement signed between the City of Bedford and the Bedford Historical Foundation, a legally structured 501(c) 3 corporation that developed out of the Bedford Historical Committee. Management of the facility was entrusted to the Foundation. To fulfill its master plan to interpret the historic schoolhouse as an educational and cultural community center, the Foundation launched a number of initiatives:

1. The northeast classroom was furnished to a 1915 interpretive period to include student desks on wooden runners, a teacher's desk, a blackened plasterboard, which spanned two walls, a 48-star American flag, and portraits of Presidents George Washington and Woodrow Wilson. The Bedford Historical Foundation developed a heritage education program and initiated an agreement with HEB-ISD administrators to schedule third grade visits to the Old Bedford School as part of their study of early community.

2. The southeast classroom served as a Visitor Center and featured a gift shop.

3. The southwest and northwest classrooms, connected by a pocket door opening, were originally under a lease agreement between the City of Bedford and Imagisphere, a children's museum in its beginning stages of operation, but later served as a gallery space programmed by the Foundation to feature changing exhibitions. One annual exhibition celebrated Youth Art Month and featured artwork by HEB-ISD schoolchildren.

4. The second floor auditorium served as a venue for Foundation-sponsored concerts and programs including the popular Quarterly Notes and Center Stage at Seven series. The auditorium was also rented by various community and business groups. Reproduction auditorium seating was purchased through fundraising efforts of the Foundation. An agreement entered into with the Mid-Cities Piano Teachers' Association provided use of a Chickering baby grand piano in exchange for a specified number of recital dates.

Improvements to the site master plan included a perimeter crushed-granite pedestrian pathway designed to encircle the site and tie into the original School Lane, which runs parallel to Bedford Road, low-voltage lighting and electrical boxes, a circular flagstone patio, and a wooden flagpole. Area scouts worked with Bedford Historical Foundation staff to plant a native grass garden and a perennial garden. Site programming initiated by the Bedford Historical Foundation included an annual springtime festival, which celebrated Bedford's rural heritage, summer storytelling and a juried fall fine art show and sale

The schoolhouse restoration and its early programming have been recognized with numerous awards, including Preservation Texas' Clara Driscoll Award and its first-ever Heritage Education Award to for the Foundation's grant-funded CD-ROM project made available to third grade students throughout 19 HEB-ISD elementary schools and funded by the Preservation Services Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Target Stores.

The Bedford Historical Foundation was honored to manage the Old Bedford School for the first seven years of its adaptive reuse as an educational and cultural community center and continues to be grateful for all who contributed their gifts of time and resources to the project and its programs. The City of Bedford chose not to renew its agreement with the Foundation in 2003. The Old Bedford School is currently managed by the City of Bedford.

It is the hope of all who have come to know and love the Old Bedford School, that this building loved sufficiently by its community to be raised from its ashes and rebuilt with the same pride felt by its original contractors and trustees, will enrich the present and future for generations to come.