DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Windmill Hill has to say — and friend, this one's got more layers than a good brisket. Back in 1845, the Republic of Texas chartered Baylor University at Independence. That's right — the Republic.
Texas wasn't even a state yet. They set the school up first on the west side of town at a place called Academy Hill, but it wasn't long before somebody looked over at the neighboring rise — Windmill Hill, also known as Allen's Hill — and said, we need more room. A man named James Huckins developed the site plan for that second campus.
And they weren't building with scraps, either. A nearby quarry provided what the record calls, and I love this phrase, superior building rock. So up went the structures, one by one, on that hilltop.
The original idea split the two campuses by purpose: Academy Hill for the preparatory students, Windmill Hill for the academic work. But in 1851, president Rufus Burleson reshuffled the whole arrangement — the male department came to Windmill Hill, and the female department stayed over at Academy Hill. Now let's talk about what got built up on that hill, because the list is something.
There was Graves Hall, a stone classroom structure built between 1849 and 1851, named for the school's very first president, Henry L. Graves. There were frame dormitories.
There was the Burleson Domicile — and get this — it was called The Octagon, built between 1856 and 1858. Eight sides. On a Texas hilltop.
Then Houston Hall went up between 1859 and 1862, housing science classes and the library. And then came Tryon Hall, the three-story main building, the crown of the whole campus — begun in 1861, just before the Civil War reached its long arm into everything — but not completed until 1882. Twenty-one years from cornerstone to finished building.
That Civil War did not make things easy. In all, eight buildings are known to have stood on Windmill Hill as part of Baylor, and there may well have been others the record hasn't accounted for. The campus, at its heart, covered over forty acres.
Baylor showed real early promise at Independence. But promise doesn't always hold. Enrollment declined.
Economic concerns mounted. And the trustees made a hard call — they voted to merge with Waco University, and by 1886, this hillside campus was abandoned. The story doesn't end clean there, though.
Crane College came through for a time, and an orphanage for African American boys used the buildings too — but both efforts were short-lived. Then came the fires. The neglect.
The demolition. One by one, the structures gave way. By the middle of the twentieth century, every last building was gone, and cattle belonging to the Charles Klatte family grazed quietly across the same hillside where those stone halls once stood.
Later, archeological investigations and historical research came in and pieced the evidence back together — confirmed where those buildings had been, mapped the bones of a campus that time had swallowed whole. And today, that core of what was once Baylor University at Independence is a park. Superior building rock.
An octagonal dormitory. A main building that took twenty-one years to finish. And in the end, cattle where scholars once walked.
That hill has seen a whole lot of Texas history — and now it remembers it.
What the marker says
In 1845, the Republic of Texas chartered Baylor University at Independence, and it began on the west side of town on Academy Hill. Shortly, work on a second campus began here at Windmill Hill (Allen's Hill). James Huckins developed a site plan and a nearby quarry provided "superior building rock." Initially, Academy Hill served as the preparatory campus and Windmill Hill as the academic campus. In 1851, though, president Rufus Burleson directed development of the male department here, with the female department at Academy Hill. Early school buildings on Windmill Hill included frame dormitories and Graves Hall, a stone classroom structure built 1849-51 and named for the school's first president, Henry L. Graves. In all, eight buildings are known to have existed here as part of the school, and there may have been others. The structures included: Burleson Domicile, "The Octagon," built 1856-58; Houston Hall, for science classes and the library, built 1859-62; and Tryon Hall, the three-story main building, begun in 1861, prior to the Civil War, but not completed until 1882. Baylor University showed early promise at Independence, but facing declining enrollment and economic concerns, trustees voted to merge with Waco University, abandoning this site by 1886. Crane College and an orphanage for African American boys later utilized the buildings, but the efforts were short-lived. Fires, neglect and demolition took their toll, and by the mid-20th century all structures were gone and cattle owned by the Charles Klatte family grazed the hillside. Later archeological investigations and historical research provided evidence of the buildings, and the core of a campus that once included over 40 acres is now a park, commemorating Baylor University's historic ties to Independence and Windmill Hill. (2006)