Mizpah Gate
Keene, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Southwestern Adventist University was founded in 1883 as the Keene Industrial and Missionary Academy. The school was founded with the purpose of training workers to fulfill positions of responsibility within the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. The school’s early administrators successfully pioneered an industrial training component along with education, which assured each graduate a useful trade. After assuming the presidency of the school in 1937, former teacher Harry H. Hamilton oversaw the construction of the Mizpah Gate. Prior to that time, the campus had been surrounded by a barbed wire fence that served to keep out starving livestock. Turnstiles at the north and south sides of campus granted access to the site. The gradual containment of domestic animals during the early 20th century enabled the fence to be removed, and the Mizpah Gate, which replaced the south turnstile, was designated as the new official entrance onto campus. The gate was constructed of brick and petrified wood transported from adjacent Somervell County and built by students under the supervision of local workmen. The structure was completed in June 1937, and was dedicated as a gift of that year’s graduating class. The name “Mizpah” was taken from the Bible’s Genesis 31:49, “And Mizpah; for he said, the Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent from one another.” As early as 1921, the school’s annual yearbook had been titled The Mizpah. Today, the gate continues to serve as a symbol of the university as it has for generations of students and the greater Johnson County community. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Southwestern Adventist University began in 1883 as the Keene Industrial and Missionary Academy, training workers for the Seventh-day Adventist church while pairing classroom study with a practical trade. When Harry H. Hamilton became president in 1937, he oversaw construction of the Mizpah Gate to replace an old turnstile in the fence that had once kept out starving livestock. Built by students of brick and petrified wood from nearby Somervell County, it was dedicated that June as a gift of the graduating class.
Why it matters
The gate endures as a campus landmark of a pioneering denominational school and reflects the early-20th-century ideal of combining industrial training with education.
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Related people
- · Harry H. Hamilton
Themes & tags
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