Nacogdoches University
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A pioneer co-educational institution incorporated by an independent board February 3, 1845. Granted four leagues of land for its support. Opened September, 1845. Eventually absorbed by the public school system. Marcus A. Montrose, an outstanding early Texas educator, was its first President. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Incorporated by an independent board in February 1845 and opened that September, Nacogdoches University was a pioneering co-educational school granted four leagues of land for its support. Its first president was Marcus A. Montrose, an outstanding early Texas educator. In time the institution was absorbed into the public school system.
Why it matters
As one of the Republic of Texas's earliest chartered schools open to both sexes, it marks the frontier's remarkably early commitment to higher education.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Marcus A. Montrose
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Washington Square
Nacogdoches, TX
Washington Square had anchored Nacogdoches learning since the old Nacogdoches University of the 1840s, so when Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College opened in 1923 with its own campus unfinished, President Alton W. Birdwell turned to the town for help. His friend and former University of Texas roommate, school superintendent R. F. Davis, lent the college the square's high school and other buildings, where East Texas students began their studies alongside high schoolers. The gesture forged a lasting bond between town and college before the new campus was completed in 1924.
Old Nacogdoches University
Nacogdoches, TX
Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845 and financed by public subscription, Nacogdoches University embodied frontier settlers' hopes for higher learning. First housed in military quarters, it gained a modified Grecian building in 1858 that troops occupied during the Civil War. Schools used the structure until the 1930s, and Nacogdoches friends restored it in the 1960s.
Old Nacogdoches University Building
Nacogdoches, TX
Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, Nacogdoches University reflected East Texas settlers' hunger for higher learning, and townspeople paid for this Greek Revival building with donations of money, materials, and labor. Completed in 1859, it served as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War and a Federal headquarters during Reconstruction before passing to the local schools in 1904. Restored in the twentieth century, it now houses a museum of Nacogdoches education.
Washington Square
Nacogdoches, TX
When the Republic of Texas chartered Nacogdoches University in 1845, three settlers donated 21.5 acres that came to be called Washington Square. A two-story Greek Revival building rose here in 1858, and during the Civil War it served as a Confederate hospital, then afterward as the U.S. Army's East Texas headquarters. Over the decades the square hosted churches, a Masonic lodge, and a succession of schools, including the first site of what is now Stephen F. Austin State University.