"Old" Main Building

Duane's take

Now, I'm givin' you my telling of what the official marker says, so let's get into it. There's a building in Walker County with a story that reaches back to the earliest days of teacher training in the state of Texas. They call it Old Main, and it was the first permanent structure ever built by the state of Texas for that purpose.

Think about that for a second. The whole enterprise of training teachers, given a home, brick and stone and purpose, for the very first time. When the cornerstone was laid on September 23, 1889, three men held the reins of power over this place.

Joseph Baldwin was president of Sam Houston Normal Institute. L. S.

Ross was governor. And A. T.

McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local board. Three names, three roles, one cornerstone going into the ground. But here's where the ceremony got some extra weight.

The man who delivered the main address that day was The Honorable O. M. Roberts, and Roberts wasn't just any dignitary.

He had been governor back in 1879, the very year Sam Houston Normal Institute was chartered. So the man who helped bring the institution into existence stood there at the laying of its first permanent foundation and gave the address. Also in attendance was Oscar H.

Cooper, the state school superintendent, who carried his own distinction: he had been a member of the very first faculty. The building itself took until 1891 to complete, and when it was finished, Alfred Mueller's design gave the institute something it had never had before. Its first library.

Eight large classrooms. And a distinctive chapel. Old Main wasn't just a building.

It was the shape that a promise takes when a state finally decides to make it permanent.

What the marker says

First permanent structure built by state of Texas for teacher training--when Joseph Baldwin was president of Sam Houston Normal Institute, L. S. Ross was governor, and A. T. McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local board. Cornerstone was laid Sept. 23, 1889, with main address by The Hon. O. M. Roberts, Governor when S.H.N.I. was chartered in 1879. Also present was state school superintendent Oscar H. Cooper, a member of the first faculty. Completed in 1891, Main gave institute its first library, 8 large classrooms, a distinctive chapel. Architect: Alfred Mueller.