Early Texas A&M Campus Housing
College Station, Brazos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When Texas A&M University opened in 1876, it was four miles from Bryan, the nearest town, and the need for campus housing for faculty and staff arose. The first of the campus houses, five brick homes along the east side of Throckmorton Street, were built in 1876. By 1938, there were more than one hundred homes on campus. The types of houses varied, ranging from large Queen Anne style homes to small bungalows and cottages. The homes were located throughout the campus. When the City of College Station was incorporated in 1938, housing in town became available, and the decision was made to remove the faculty housing. Many residents expressed a desire to buy their homes, and the college began accepting bids in 1941. One third of the houses were soon sold, with prices ranging from $200-$800. Another third were sold and moved over the next twenty years. The rest of the original structures were burned or razed. None remain on campus. Forty-one of the original homes have been located. Thirty-eight are in College Station, two are in Bryan, and one is about two miles north of Bryan.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas A&M opened in 1876 four miles from the nearest town of Bryan, the college had to house its own faculty and staff, and the first five brick homes went up along Throckmorton Street that year. By 1938 more than a hundred houses—from Queen Anne mansions to modest bungalows—dotted the campus. After College Station was incorporated that year, the college sold the homes off for a few hundred dollars each and cleared the rest; none remain on campus, though forty-one have since been located nearby.
Why it matters
The vanished campus village is a window into how isolated land-grant colleges built entire self-contained communities to bring higher education to the American countryside.
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Themes & tags
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