Wisely Hall
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Stephen F. Austin State University moved to the northern edge of Nacogdoches in the spring of 1924, it became evident to President Alton W. Birdwell that housing options for students in the surrounding area were inadequate. However, before plans for dormitories could materialize, the Great Depression immobilized the expansion of Texas educational institutions. President Birdwell and business manager J.H. Wisely saw the Public Works Administration (PWA) of the National Recovery Act of 1933 as a solution to the dearth of campus housing. By the end of 1933, Birdwell and wisely presented plans for a men’s dormitory that would accommodate 70 students in 35 rooms. There were also plans for a kitchen, dining room, apartment for the manager and social and club rooms for student use. In 1934, the State Board of Regents agreed to the plans and issued bonds for $93,000, with the PWA providing funding. W.E. Ketchum was the architect for the project and the A.M. Campbell Company was chosen as general contractor. The “boy’s dorm” was the first PWA project in Nacogdoches. Its construction began in July 1935 and was completed in 1936 at a final cost of $106,000, including furnishings. The boy’s dorm quickly became a favorite place for all students, but especially commuters, to congregate. Many of the residents were also employed as waiters and servers in the cafeteria. In 1943, President Paul Lewis Boynton recruited the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) Branch Number 1 to use the dorm as barracks. Male students moved back into the dorm in January 1944. In 1948, President Boynton and the Board of Regents changed the name to Wisely Hall in honor of J.H. Wisely, who died in 1945.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Stephen F. Austin State University moved to the edge of Nacogdoches in 1924, student housing was scarce, and the Great Depression soon froze plans for expansion. President Alton Birdwell and business manager J. H. Wisely turned to the New Deal's Public Works Administration, and in 1935–36 the town's first PWA project rose: a men's dormitory that quickly became a favorite gathering spot. During World War II it housed a Women's Army Corps unit before returning to student use, and in 1948 it was renamed Wisely Hall in honor of Wisely.
Why it matters
The building shows how New Deal public works reshaped American campuses during the Depression and how those same halls were pressed into service for the war effort.
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Related people
- · Alton W. Birdwell
- · J. H. Wisely
Related events
- · Public Works Administration
- · World War II
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
Women's Army Corps School
Nacogdoches, TX
When World War II drained young men — and students — from campuses across the country, the U.S. Army turned college classrooms into training grounds for its newest recruits: women. With enrollment at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College fallen below 500, the Army opened Administration School No. 1 here in 1943 to teach members of the Women's Army Corps the clerical and administrative trades of a modern military. Housed in the dormitories and drilled in six-week courses, roughly 3,000 women passed through before the school closed in 1944, each graduating class thanking the town with a variety show at the high school.
Birdwell Field, Aikman Gym and the Women's Recreation Center
Nacogdoches, TX
When Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College was funded in 1921, the legislature paid for only one building—the Austin Building, or "Old Main." President Alton W. Birdwell, convinced the young college needed more, arranged its first athletic field in 1923, even before the campus moved to North Street. Over the following decades the college added Aikman Gymnasium, a 3,500-seat multipurpose hall given by philanthropist Frank Aikman, and a Women's Recreation Center built in 1935 with Public Works Administration help, which doubled as a WAAC post exchange during World War II. Memorial Stadium later replaced Birdwell Field, honoring the college's WWII dead.
Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College During World War II
Nacogdoches, TX
When the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor, the president of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College gathered students and faculty to meet the national emergency—and the campus emptied into the war. Enrollment fell by sixty percent, football was suspended, and a campus flag bore more than a thousand blue stars for those serving and twenty-four gold ones for those who died. In a notable distinction, the Army chose SFA in 1943 as the first college in the nation to host a Women's Army Corps training school. After the war, returning veterans on the G.I. Bill swelled the college and its recreation grounds were rededicated as Memorial Park and Memorial Stadium.