University Gardens, Texas Woman's University

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and it's a story worth telling right. Way back in the 1930s, the Exterior Beautification Committee of Texas State College for Women (the school we now know as Texas Woman's University) decided this patch of ground deserved something special. Three people drove that vision: Willie Isabella Birge, who directed the Department of Biology; Fred Westcourt, who directed the Department of Rural Arts; and Mary Marshall, who directed the Department of Art.

Biology, rural arts, fine art. Think about that combination for a moment. Science and beauty and the land itself, all pulling in the same direction.

What they built was a Rock Garden and native botanical area, planted with a diverse collection of plants from Texas and other areas, its paths and retaining walls laid in native stone. Then in 1938, they added a chapel in the woods right next door, because apparently a garden that good needed a place to sit quietly and reflect on it. For years, this was a focal point of the whole campus.

People came to walk those stone paths, to study, to breathe. And then, as happens with so many things, World War II came and went, and when the world turned its attention back to everyday life, the gardens got left behind. Neglected.

Overgrown. The stone walls were still there, the native plants doing what native plants do, stubborn and patient, but the place had gone quiet in a different way. Now here's where the story turns.

In the late 1970s, university officials and local residents joined forces and brought it all back, a cooperative effort that cleared the overgrowth and restored the gardens to something the original committee would've recognized. Today the University Gardens stand as a sanctuary for the preservation of native Texas wildflowers. Students use it as an educational laboratory.

The campus uses it as a trail garden for the very plants that grow around the buildings. And everybody else? Everybody else just uses it to find a little serenity.

Willie Isabella Birge, Fred Westcourt, and Mary Marshall laid those stone paths in the 1930s for a reason, and it turns out that reason holds just as true today.

What the marker says

The original Rock Garden and native botanical area at this site was established in the 1930s by the Exterior Beautification Committee of Texas State College for Women, now Texas Woman's University. Members of the committee were Willie Isabella Birge, director of the Department of Biology, Fred Westcourt, director of the Department of Rural Arts and Mary Marshall, director of the Department of Art. The gardens were planned and landscaped to display a diverse collection of plants from Texas and other areas. Paths and retaining walls were constructed of native stone. The adjacent chapel in the woods was added in 1938. A focal point of the campus for many years, the gardens were neglected following World War II and they became overgrown. In the late 1970s, through a cooperative effort of university officials and local residents, the area was restored. The University Gardens are now a sanctuary for the preservation of native Texas wildflowers. The site serves as an educational laboratory for students, as a trail garden for plants used in campus landscaping and as a place of serenity and relaxation. (1982)