Washington Square
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When Nacogdoches University was chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, three early settlers --Haden Edwards, Charles S. Taylor, and J. R. Arnold -- donated 21.5 acres of land for the school. Known as Washington Square by 1848, the land was bounded by the present-day streets of Hughes, Mound, Edwards, and Fredonia. University trustees erected a two-story red brick Greek Revival building on the square in 1858. During the Civil War it served as a Confederate Hospital, and following the war was the site of the U.S. Army's East Texas headquarters. Later tenants of the structure included a Masonic Lodge and a Louisiana college. In 1889, in an effort to raise much-needed funds, University trustees sold the southern end of the square (between present Arnold and Edwards streets) for residential development. Christ Episcopal Church and the Old Stone Fort both stood on the square for a time. The trustees transferred the campus to the Nacogdoches Independent School District in 1904. Its educational purposes have included public schools, the first site of Stephen F. Austin State University, and the present Thomas J. Rusk Middle School. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
One patch of ground charts a Texas town's journey from Republic-era education through Civil War and Reconstruction to the modern public school and university.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1845, Texas stood at a threshold. The Republic of Texas, only a few years old, was on the verge of joining the United States, and its people were looking beyond mere survival toward the institutions of a settled society. Chief among those aspirations was education, and it was in that spirit that Nacogdoches University received its charter from the republic.
Nacogdoches itself was old ground with a new purpose. One of the region's most historic towns, it was becoming a place where the dreams of the republic could take physical form in schools and public squares. Land was the coin the young republic could most readily spend on such dreams, and three early settlers stepped forward to provide it.
The decades that followed would carry this single patch of ground through some of the most turbulent chapters in the nation's life, from the hopeful founding years, through the Civil War and its aftermath, and into the modern era of public schooling. Few places compress so much American history into so few acres.
People & events
When the university was chartered in 1845, three settlers, Haden Edwards, Charles S. Taylor, and J. R. Arnold, donated 21.5 acres to give the school a home. By 1848 the tract was known as Washington Square, bounded by streets that still frame it today. In 1858 the trustees raised a two-story red brick Greek Revival building on the square, a substantial statement of confidence in the town's future.
That confidence soon collided with war. During the Civil War the building served as a Confederate hospital, and in the years that followed it became the site of the U.S. Army's East Texas headquarters, a single structure passing from one authority to another as the country itself was torn apart and stitched back together. Later the building housed a Masonic lodge and a Louisiana college, a reminder of how such landmarks were used and reused as needs changed.
The square's story kept turning. In 1889, needing funds, the trustees sold off the southern end for homes. Christ Episcopal Church and the Old Stone Fort both stood on the grounds for a time. In 1904 the campus passed to the Nacogdoches Independent School District, and the ground has served education ever since, including as the first site of Stephen F. Austin State University and, today, as Thomas J. Rusk Middle School.
Its place in the American story
Washington Square is a case study in how a young republic, and then a young state, built the machinery of civic life. The founding gift of land for a university reflects a belief that ran deep in nineteenth-century America: that self-government could not survive without an educated citizenry, and that even a raw frontier community owed its children schools.
The square's Civil War chapter connects this quiet Texas ground to the national trauma. A building raised for learning became a Confederate hospital, then a federal army headquarters during Reconstruction, the whole national drama of secession, war, and reunion playing out on a single town square. Few local sites so cleanly embody the way the war reached into every corner of the country and repurposed whatever it found.
And the long afterlife of the square, its churches, its lodge, its succession of schools culminating in a public middle school and the roots of a state university, shows the American habit of continuity through change. One piece of donated land kept serving the public good for generation after generation, adapting its use while holding to its original purpose.
If you visit
Come to Washington Square and let the ordinary present sit alongside the dramatic past. Where students now pass their school days, wounded soldiers once lay and army officers once gave orders; standing on the same ground, you can feel how thin the wall is between everyday life and history.
Walk the boundary streets and picture the 21.5-acre gift as it was in the 1840s, then imagine the two-story brick building rising in 1858 and all the uses it saw thereafter. The marker rewards a reader who lingers over its long list of tenants, each one a different era of the town's life.
For a road trip, this is a rich anchor stop in a town full of history. Pair it with the other markers and landmarks nearby and you will trace, in a single afternoon and a few short blocks, the journey of a Texas community from republic to Civil War to the modern schoolyard.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Haden Edwards
- · Charles S. Taylor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Nacogdoches University Building
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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.
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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.
Washington Square
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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.
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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.