Old Nacogdoches University

Duane's take

The way I hear it, this comes straight from the official marker for Old Nacogdoches University, and I'm just the one doing the telling. Now settle in, because this story's got ambition, war, and a building that simply refused to quit. The Republic of Texas, back in 1845, chartered a university here in Nacogdoches.

Not the state of Texas, mind you. The Republic. Settlers out here had ideals about higher education, and somebody decided those ideals deserved a proper charter.

No state coffers to draw from, though. This thing got financed by public subscriptions. Neighbors putting in what they had, betting on the future.

First, the new university made do with military quarters. Practical folks, these Nacogdoches settlers. You use what's standing.

But by 1858, they had raised something worth looking at. A modified Grecian structure, dignified and deliberate, the kind of building that says we mean to be here a while. And then came the Civil War.

Troops occupied the building. Whatever the university had been, it became something else for a time. After the war, though, the old structure found its footing again.

Schools used it. Year after year, decade after decade, all the way into the 1930s. Think about that.

One building, chartered under a republic that no longer existed, carrying the educational life of a community for the better part of a century. By the 1960s, friends in Nacogdoches had seen enough of time doing its slow damage. They stepped up and restored it.

The same way those first settlers financed it with subscriptions, a new generation put their hands to saving it. That modified Grecian structure, first raised in 1858, is still here. Some buildings earn their place on the landscape.

This one earned it twice.

What the marker says

Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845 to fulfill settlers' ideals for higher education. Financed by public subscriptions. Housed first in military quarters, erected this modified Grecian structure 1858. Occupied by troops in Civil War, it was used by schools until 1930s. Restored in 1960s by friends in Nacogdoches. (1966)