Southwestern University Main Building
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest structure on permanent campus. Planned 1895-97 as chapel, library, classrooms, offices, when the regent (president) was Dr. J. H. McLean (1838-1925); built 1898-1900 under regent R. S. Hyer (1860-1929). From throughout the state came building fund gifts, which even included land from plantation of late Texas president Sam Houston. Neo-Romanesque style. Builders, Flume & Waterston (from British Isles), had worked on State Capitol. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest building on Southwestern University's permanent campus was planned in the 1890s and raised between 1898 and 1900, holding chapel, library, classrooms, and offices under regents J. H. McLean and R. S. Hyer. Donations poured in from across Texas—including land from the plantation of the late Republic president Sam Houston. Built in Neo-Romanesque style by craftsmen who had worked on the State Capitol, it embodied a young state's ambition for higher learning.
Why it matters
As the heart of Texas's oldest university, the building reflects the post-Reconstruction drive to build lasting educational institutions across the American South and West.
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Related people
- · J. H. McLean
- · R. S. Hyer
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Woman's Club of Georgetown
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In 1893, Lula Holland Leavell and her daughters hosted a literary reading that grew into a women's club, formally organized as the Initial History Club in 1897 to pursue literature, history, music, and civic affairs. In 1917 it merged with two other local groups to become the Woman's Club of Georgetown. More than a century on, it continues its work of civic enrichment and support for the arts.
Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order
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W. C. Vaden House
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Local builder Charles S. Belford finished this home in 1908 for Wesley Carrol Vaden and his wife Kate, a Virginia-born scholar who taught Latin and Greek at Southwestern University for more than forty years. Its eclectic design blends Queen Anne styling with classical touches suited to a professor's taste, from inset balconies and an oval window to elliptical arched openings. The house is a graceful reflection of academic life in an early-twentieth-century college town.
Southwestern University
Georgetown, TX
Southwestern University traces its roots to a cluster of pioneer Methodist colleges chartered by the Republic of Texas and the early state, whose charters it gathered up when Georgetown citizens offered land and support around 1870. Classes began in 1873 under founding regent Dr. Francis Asbury Mood, and the school was formally chartered as Southwestern University in 1875 after ceding the name "Texas University" to the state. Women were admitted from 1878, and the campus took permanent form with the Main Building completed by 1900.