DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and friend, this one's worth the stop. They called it Old Red. Still do.
But before it had that name, before it had any name at all, it was simply the whole show — the first building, and for a good while the only building, of the University of Texas Medical Branch down in Galveston. One building. That was the entire institution.
No backup plan, no annex down the road. Just this one massive Romanesque structure rising up like it had something to prove. And given who designed it, maybe it did.
The architect was Nicholas J. Clayton, a master of his craft, and he did not come to play small. The thing was enormous.
Heavy. The kind of building that makes you feel the weight of it before you even walk through the door. It was dedicated October 5, 1891 — and here's where the story gets almost funny, if it weren't also a little bit heroic.
When those doors opened, the rooms were almost devoid of equipment. Almost devoid. That's the official phrasing, and it's doing a lot of polite work.
What they had, though, was a young, vigorous staff. That was the pitch. That was the whole hand they were playing.
Twenty-three students enrolled that year, 1891, and those twenty-three souls walked into a grand Romanesque shell and said, alright then, let's learn medicine. The name Old Red came later — 1949, to be precise — when the building was named for Ashbel Smith, who had lived from 1805 to 1886. Pioneer surgeon, diplomat, and the man the marker calls, with no apparent irony, the Father of the University of Texas.
He didn't live to see that October dedication, but the building that held it all together eventually took his name. One building. Twenty-three students.
Almost no equipment. And somehow, that was enough to start.
What the marker says
First, and originally the only, building of University of Texas Medical Branch. Master architect Nicholas J. Clayton designed the massive Romanesque structure. It was dedicated October 5, 1891. Although rooms were almost devoid of equipment, the school boasted a young, vigorous staff. Enrollment in 1891 was 23. The building was named in 1949 for Ashbel Smith (1805-86), pioneer surgeon, diplomat, and "Father of the University of Texas." Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969