DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Austin Building in Nacogdoches County. Now settle in, because this story starts — as so many Texas stories do — with a vote somebody won and twenty-seven somebodies lost. Back in 1917, Texas legislators set their minds to improving public education across the state.
Their answer was to establish new colleges — one in East Texas, one in South Texas. And then came the question that had towns all across East Texas holding their breath: who's going to get it? Twenty-seven towns threw their names in.
Twenty-seven. And when the dust settled, Nacogdoches walked away with the prize. The new East Texas College had found its home.
A historian by the name of A. W. Birdwell was chosen to serve as president of the institution, and the work of building something lasting began in earnest.
The building that anchors this whole story went up in 1922 and 1923. Architect W. E.
Ketchum designed it, and they named it after Stephen F. Austin — Texas' preeminent Anglo American colonizer. Classical revival style, which was right in keeping with how college and governmental buildings looked across Texas in the early twentieth century.
You'd know it the moment you laid eyes on it. There's a pedimented entry bay with columns, a double-door entry waiting at the top of a ceremonial flight of stairs, cast stone detailing, and a rhythm of bays defined by pilasters. It announces itself.
When the Austin Building first opened its doors, it served as the administrative headquarters and classroom facility for what the marker calls a provincial liberal arts teachers college — comprised almost entirely of Anglo East Texas students, numbering in the hundreds. Hundreds. Now fast-forward to today, and that same building is the nerve center of a multi-disciplinary university with thousands of students from various cultural and national origins.
Same columns. Same ceremonial stairs. Same cast stone.
The building hasn't moved an inch, but the world that walks through its doors has grown into something far larger than those 1917 legislators could've imagined. And one more thing worth noting — the marker itself was placed in 1993, the bicentennial year of Stephen F. Austin's birth in 1793.
The oldest academic building still standing on that campus, still in use, still doing its job. Some things in Texas are just built to last.
What the marker says
Efforts by Texas Legislators in 1917 to improve the quality of public education in Texas resulted in provisions to establish colleges in East Texas and South Texas. Nacogdoches was chosen over 27 other towns to become home to the new East Texas College. Historian A. W. Birdwell was chosen president of the institution. This building, designed by architect W. E. Ketchum and named after Stephen F. Austin, Texas' preeminent Anglo American colonizer, was built in 1922-23 and is the university's oldest academic building still in use. The Austin Building's classical revival style was a typical early 20th century design for college and governmental buildings throughout Texas. Elements of the style are evident in the building's pedimented entry bay with columns, double-door entry at the top of a ceremonial flight of stairs, cast stone detailing, and rhythm of bays defined by pilasters. The Austin building was originally the administrative headquarters and classroom facility for a provincial liberal arts teachers college comprised almost entirely of Anglo East Texas students numbering in the hundreds. Today it serves as the nerve center of a multi-disciplinary university with thousands of students of various cultural and national origins. Stephen F. Austin Bicentennial 1793 - 1993