DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Washington Square tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Washington Square in Nacogdoches has been a lot of things to a lot of people. It goes all the way back to the old Nacogdoches University in the 1840s — a center of learning planted right there in East Texas, long before most folks had paved roads to get to it.
By 1904, the square had become part of the Nacogdoches Independent School District. History had a way of collecting on that piece of ground. Then came 1923, and a new chapter — one that started off rocky, as the best chapters often do.
Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College was brand new, freshly imagined, sitting on a 208-acre campus. There was just one problem: the facilities weren't ready for occupancy.
Not a wall plastered, not a door hung, not a chalk rail mounted — and students were already on their way. Now, a lesser man might've folded. But President Alton W.
Birdwell wasn't a lesser man. He turned to the citizens of Nacogdoches for help. And it just so happened he had an old friend in exactly the right place — R.
F. Davis, Superintendent of Schools, who had been Birdwell's roommate at the University of Texas. Davis opened up every NISD facility he had.
The high school building. The old stone fort once located on Washington Square. The grammar school.
All of it. So those first Stephen F. Austin students — most of them natives of East Texas, starting their college careers on faith — walked into the Old University Building and began their education in the very footsteps of the old Nacogdoches University pupils who'd come before them.
For most of that first semester, the college students and faculty shared those halls side by side with Nacogdoches High School. Think about that. Two schools, one set of buildings, one square, one community holdin' the whole thing together.
Washington Square became the center of campus life, of social life, of everything that matters when a new institution is trying to take root. And take root it did. By 1924, the new college campus was complete.
On April 30th of that year, students and townspeople gathered in the high school auditorium for a final program — a proper send-off, a closing of one door and an opening of another. And here's the detail that stops you cold: every single 1924 graduate of Nacogdoches High School went on to college. Every one.
The marker calls that a number virtually unknown in East Texas at the time. What had begun as a difficult birth — a college without a campus, a president calling in an old favor, a town saying yes — became the foundation of something lasting. A tradition of cooperation and mutual achievement between the city of Nacogdoches and Stephen F.
Austin State Teachers College. Sometimes the rocky start is the whole story.
What the marker says
First Home of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College Washington Square, a historic Nacogdoches center from the inception of the old Nacogdoches University in the 1840s, became in 1904 a part of the Nacogdoches Independent School District (NISD). When the facilities on the 208-acre campus of the new Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College were not ready for occupancy in 1923, President Alton W. Birdwell turned to the citizens of Nacogdoches for assistance. Birdwell's old friend and University of Texas roommate, R. F. Davis, Superintendent of Schools, made the NISD facilities available to Birdwell and the college community. These included the buildings on Washington Square: the high school building, the old stone fort once located on the square, and the grammar school. Stephen F. Austin's students, most of them natives of East Texas, began their college careers in the "Old University Building," following in the footsteps of the Old Nacogdoches University pupils. For most of the first semester, the Stephen F. Austin students and faculty shared facilities with Nacogdoches High School. The buildings and area around Washington Square became the center of campus and social life as the college began to take its place as a vital part of Nacogdoches life. The new college campus was complete in 1924. On April 30 of that year, students and townspeople met in the high school auditorium for a final program. Every 1924 graduate of Nacogdoches High School went on to college, a number virtually unknown in East Texas. What had begun as a difficult birth for the new college resulted in the establishment of a lasting tradition of cooperation and mutual achievement between the city of Nacogdoches and the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College. (1999)