Washington Square
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First Home of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College Washington Square, a historic Nacogdoches center from the inception of the old Nacogdoches University in the 1840s, became in 1904 a part of the Nacogdoches Independent School District (NISD). When the facilities on the 208-acre campus of the new Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College were not ready for occupancy in 1923, President Alton W. Birdwell turned to the citizens of Nacogdoches for assistance. Birdwell's old friend and University of Texas roommate, R. F. Davis, Superintendent of Schools, made the NISD facilities available to Birdwell and the college community. These included the buildings on Washington Square: the high school building, the old stone fort once located on the square, and the grammar school. Stephen F. Austin's students, most of them natives of East Texas, began their college careers in the "Old University Building," following in the footsteps of the Old Nacogdoches University pupils. For most of the first semester, the Stephen F. Austin students and faculty shared facilities with Nacogdoches High School. The buildings and area around Washington Square became the center of campus and social life as the college began to take its place as a vital part of Nacogdoches life. The new college campus was complete in 1924. On April 30 of that year, students and townspeople met in the high school auditorium for a final program. Every 1924 graduate of Nacogdoches High School went on to college, a number virtually unknown in East Texas. What had begun as a difficult birth for the new college resulted in the establishment of a lasting tradition of cooperation and mutual achievement between the city of Nacogdoches and the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
It illustrates the town-and-gown partnership that launched many American state colleges, expanding access to higher education for a rural region.
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Related people
- · Alton W. Birdwell
- · R. F. Davis
Related events
- · Founding of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nacogdoches University
Nacogdoches, TX
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.
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.