First University Building

The story

On this site in 1891, the city of Denton erected a building to be leased to President Joshua C. Chilton, for the use of the privately owned Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute, which he had opened the year before in a business building downtown. The 10-acre campus became state property in 1901.

President Chilton's college thus was forerunner of North Texas State University. The old Normal building was struck by lightning and burned, 1907. This marker is dedicated on the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the university.