Rusk Building
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built on the homestead lands of warrior statesman Thomas Jefferson Rusk, Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (SFA) was swollen with success shortly after taking over its new facilities, the Austin Building and Aikman Gymnasium, in 1924. The board of regents had approved the erection of the Rusk building in their original plan, but cost-cutting measures in the State Legislature led to a delay in its construction until 1926. Designed by architect W. E. Ketchum, it was built by F. A. Mote, the same contractor who had completed the Austin Building in 1924. An excellent example of a classical revival public building, the Rusk Building features a fifteen-bay primary facade, a grand staircase, pedimented three-bay entry, Doric columns and cast stone details. An important academic facility for a variety of SFA programs, it initially housed the college library, departments of education and business, and the demonstration school for teacher training. In later years it was home to the departments of applied arts and sciences, communications, continuing education, social work and criminal justice, as well as administrative offices of the registrar, admissions staff and student services. The Texas Folklore Society and university printing services have occupied the basement. An extensive renovation project in 1987 returned the Rusk Building to its original grandeur. The structure retains a high degree of architectural integrity and remains a central facility on the Stephen F. Austin State University Campus. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rising on land once part of statesman Thomas Jefferson Rusk's homestead, the Rusk Building was completed in 1926 to serve the fast-growing Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College. Designed by architect W. E. Ketchum in a dignified classical revival style—Doric columns, a grand staircase, and a pedimented entry—it first housed the library, the education and business departments, and a demonstration school for training teachers. Over the decades it sheltered a shifting mix of academic programs and administrative offices, and a 1987 renovation restored its original grandeur.
Why it matters
The building embodies the ambitions of a young teachers' college and the classical civic architecture Americans favored for their temples of public education.
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Related people
- · Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The University Tradition in Nacogdoches
Nacogdoches, TX
Nacogdoches inherited a sense of scholarly duty from the Spanish friars of its mission, and prominent citizens like Sam Houston and Thomas J. Rusk championed learning. The Republic of Texas chartered Nacogdoches University in 1845, and townspeople gave money, land, and labor to build it, moving the school to Washington Square in 1858. Through Civil War hardship and changing hands among churches and colleges, the town's devotion to education persisted—culminating decades later in its successful campaign to win Stephen F. Austin State Normal College.
Alton W. Birdwell
Nacogdoches, TX
Born in the Piney Woods in 1870, Alton W. Birdwell rose from home schooling and brick-molding labor to become one of East Texas's foremost educators, studying at several universities and teaching across the region. Appointed founding president of Stephen F. Austin State Normal School in 1917, he opened the college in borrowed facilities when construction lagged, personally chose its faculty, and guided it through the lean years of the Great Depression. He remained tied to the institution as president emeritus until his death in 1954.
Pioneering Higher Education in East Texas
Nacogdoches, TX
In the early 20th century, East Texas had no institution to train its teachers, and makeshift "normal institutes" struggled to lift the education of rural instructors—nearly a quarter of whom had not finished high school. As new state laws mandated compulsory schooling and teacher certification, demand for trained educators soared. After years of legislative and political delay, Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College opened in 1923 with 24 hand-picked faculty, drawing students overwhelmingly from the surrounding counties.
Paul Lewis Boynton
Nacogdoches, TX
Paul Lewis Boynton, a Texas-born psychologist trained at Peabody College, became president of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College in 1942 just as World War II drained its male students away. To keep the school alive he persuaded the federal government to open a Women's Army Corps training school on campus in 1943 and secured surplus buildings and land that launched a forestry department in 1945, then guided a surge of postwar enrollment until his sudden death in 1958.