Original Site of Southwestern University
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Methodist church established four colleges in Texas prior to the Civil War: Rutersville College (1840), Wesleyan College (1844), McKenzie Institute (1848), and Soule University (1856). The Rev. Dr. Francis Asbury Mood (1830-1884) was named president of Soule University in Washington County in 1868. Soon after he took office, plans were begun to relocate the school and develop a centralized Methodist university. About the same time, city leaders in Georgetown began plans to establish a college. This site was donated for that purpose by John J. Dimmitt and G. W. Glasscock, Jr., and a community school, instead of a college, opened in 1870. Georgetown was among the cities competing for the site of the planned Methodist university. In 1873 this property was chosen as the site of the new institution, which was granted a union charter (with the four earlier colleges) in 1875 as Southwestern University. Dr. Mood served as president until his death. Buildings added to the campus after 1873 included a young ladies school, a chapel, a boys dormitory (Giddings Hall), and a gymnasium. Southwestern University moved to its present site in 1900 but continued to operate a preparatory department here until 1916.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Texas Methodists founded four colleges before the Civil War, and after the war the Rev. Dr. Francis Asbury Mood set out to consolidate them into a single, centralized university. Georgetown competed for the prize, offering this donated site, and in 1873 it was chosen as home to the new institution—chartered in 1875 as Southwestern University under a union of the four earlier schools. Mood led it until his death, and though the university moved to its present campus in 1900, a preparatory department lingered here until 1916.
Why it matters
This ground marks the founding of the oldest university in Texas, a milestone in the state's long effort to build lasting institutions of higher learning.
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Related people
- · Francis Asbury Mood
- · John J. Dimmitt
- · G. W. Glasscock, Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Georgetown High School Building
Georgetown, TX
Rising in 1923–24 on ground that once held Southwestern University, this building served Georgetown's high school students for more than half a century. Austin architect Charles H. Page gave it a Spanish Colonial Revival face, crowned by a Baroque entryway whose cast-stone shells, flowers, urns, and garlands announced the community's pride in its schools. A gymnasium joined the rear in the 1940s as the school grew.
Negro Fine Arts School
Georgetown, TX
In 1946 — two decades before Georgetown's schools integrated — Southwestern University professor Iola Bowden Chambers and three of her students began teaching piano to children in the city's African American community. Backed by the school board, the First Methodist Church, and university students, the Negro Fine Arts School grew to welcome more than 200 children, adding voice and art lessons, annual recitals, and college scholarships. Its graduates went on to earn music degrees and teach the next generation.
First United Methodist Church of Georgetown
Georgetown, TX
Begun in 1849 as a frontier mission served by circuit-riding preachers, this Methodist congregation gained a resident pastor in 1879 and raised its first building on the young Southwestern University campus. The present limestone church, hand-cut on site in 1891–93 and laid out on the plan of a Greek cross, was overseen by physics professor Robert S. Hyer, and it later shaped the callings of two brothers who became Methodist bishops.
The G. W. Riley House
Georgetown, TX
This Georgetown residence dates to 1872, built by a Southwestern University chaplain who helped found the town's First Methodist church. In 1903 it passed to the Rev. George W. Riley, a circuit-riding Methodist minister who planted or served congregations in a string of Texas towns across nearly half a century. Riley and his wife settled here in part to educate their children, and the house has stayed in the family ever since.