DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just along for the ride. Now here's a place that couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be — and maybe that restlessness is exactly what made it great. It starts in 1895.
Arlington College opens its doors, a private school for students in grades one through ten, housed in a two-story frame building. Nothing fancy. Just a building, some young minds, and the particular Texas optimism that believes something good can be built from scratch.
But Arlington College doesn't last. By 1902 it gives way to Carlisle Military Academy, operated by a man named James M. Carlisle — former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which is about as serious a credential as you can bring to a school.
And yet, financial difficulties have a way of humbling even serious credentials. The Academy slips into receivership, and that seems to be the end of that chapter. Except it isn't.
In 1913, a man named H. K. Taylor steps in and opens Arlington Training School on the same ground.
And then — and here's where you start to feel a pattern taking shape — that school is replaced in 1916 by Arlington Military Academy. Which closes after only one year. One year.
So in the span of roughly two decades, this patch of ground in Arlington, Texas has housed a private school, a military academy that went bust, a training school, and another military academy that barely got its boots laced before it shut down. Five institutions on the same soil. You'd be forgiven for wondering whether anything would ever stick.
Then 1917 arrives, and everything changes. The school becomes a state-supported institution. It gets a new name — Grubbs Vocational College, honoring a local supporter by the name of Vincent W.
Grubbs — and it affiliates with Texas A&M, which at the time was going by its full formal name: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. And now, instead of closing, it starts growing. The name changes again — to North Texas Agricultural College, which carries it from 1923 to 1949.
Then it becomes Arlington State College, from 1949 to 1965. Each new name is a new skin for something that keeps getting bigger underneath. In 1965, the institution is transferred to the University of Texas System.
Two years later, in 1967, it takes the name it carries today — the University of Texas at Arlington. And from that two-story frame building in 1895 to what it has become: the second largest university in the University of Texas System, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, and standing as one of the most important public institutions in the entire area. Seven names.
More than seventy years of false starts, receiverships, one-year experiments, and hard pivots. And in the end, something that outlasted every version of doubt. That's Arlington.
That's Texas. That's what happens when a place just refuses to quit.
What the marker says
Tracing its history to a series of private schools and military academies, The University of Texas at Arlington has grown with the community to become one of the area's most important public institutions. Arlington College, a private school for students in grades 1-10, opened here in 1895 in a two-story frame building. It was succeeded in 1902 by Carlisle Military Academy, operated by former State Superintendent of Public Instruction James M. Carlisle. Financial difficulties forced the Academy into receivership, and in 1913 H.K. Taylor opened Arlington Training School in its place. It in turn was replaced in 1916 by Arlington Military Academy, which closed after only one year. The school became a state-supported institution in 1917. Known as Grubbs Vocational College for local supporter Vincent W. Grubbs, it was affiliated with Texas A&M (then called The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas) through two more name changes--North Texas Agricultural College (1923-49) and Arlington State College (1949-65). Transferred to the University of Texas System in 1965, it was renamed the University of Texas at Arlington in 1967 and has become the second largest University in the System, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995