This walking tour highlights some of the most noteworthy buildings on the campus, locations of former significant buildings and our original location in Commerce on the downtown square. You can take the tour from your computer or use this map as a guide as you walk through campus. Look for the blue and gold historic markers as you reach each stop.
Mayo Gravesite
According to campus legend, President Mayo, while looking out the windows of his office in Old Main, pointed to a black locust thicket on the northeast corner of campus and remarked that he would like the spot to be his final resting place. His wish was honored. On March 19, 1917, he was interred at the site. After President Mayo’s death, the W.L. Mayo Memorial Association was formed to raise money for a marker. In 1926, the granite marker that currently marks his gravesite was added. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the site was extensively remodeled in 2016. The Mayo Memorial Service is held annually at the gravesite during Homecoming to honor President Mayo’s legacy.
David Talbot Hall
The David Talbot Hall (formerly theLibrary) was constructed in 1930 at a cost of $200,000. In addition to serving as the first dedicated library from 1930-1959, the Hall hosted social functions such as campus dances in its large reading room. During World War II, the school partitioned part of the reading room and stack areas for classrooms to be used by the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the top floor housed a local history museum. After the current Gee Library opened in 1959, the original library was converted to the Hall of Languages. The open two-story reading room on the north side of the building was divided vertically to create a third floor. Many elements of the original library, such as built-in bookcases are still visible throughout the building.
Heritage House
One of President R.B. Binnion’s primary complaints during his tenure was the lack of a dedicated president’s home. His successor, President Sam Whitley, shared Binnion’s sentiments. An early construction bill for a president’s home was vetoed by the state legislature. Despite the veto, land for the new home just south of the new Education Building was purchased for $4000 in 1925. During the 1927 legislative session, the legislature approved $15,000 to build the home, and the governor filed the bill. President Whitley was thrilled. In June 1927, he wrote to President Binnion, “I have actually secured an appropriation for the President’s home and this self-same item has not been vetoed by the Governor. I am going to build as fine a home as can be built with the money and equip it to some extent. Just as soon as I have it finished I am going to put a center table right in the middle of the reception room, get me a big arm chair, a .25 cent cigar, some of my old friends like yourself to help celebrate, a few pretty maids to pass the punch, and I am going to see just for one time what it feels like to rear back in a little bit of comfort and ease with the full knowledge that no living governor can veto the item.”
The home originally served three presidents, Whitley, Gee and Halladay, after which it was repurposed for office space. It later became known as Heritage House and held various departments, such as Alumni Affairs, Honors College, and Institutional Effectiveness. In fall 2016, Heritage House was once again utilized as a home for the university president when President Ray Keck and his wife, Patricia, moved in to the home. Heritage House is the only building recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ferguson Hall
East Texas State broke ground on what was then known as the Education Building in January 1924. The $285,000 building was completed at the end of 1925 and dedicated in a formal ceremony on January 16, 1926. This same ceremony also marked the inauguration of ET’s third president, Samuel H. Whitley. The Education Building was the first to be constructed using state funds after the purchase of the college by the state. The building originally housed an auditorium, administrative offices for the president and dean, classrooms, the Training School, and a gymnasium on the west side of the building known as the “Cub Gym.”When the administrative offices moved to the new Administration Building (Ed North) in 1951, the vacated space was converted to classrooms and additional office space. While the building was remodeled several times over the years, an extensive $1.5 million remodel began in 1984 to bring the building up to current safety codes and to improve the building’s accessibility. The cornerstone, laid in a formal ceremony on May 6, 1924, included artifacts contributed by students and faculty. It was first opened during the university’s centennial in 1989 and is scheduled to be opened again in May 2024.
Now known as Ferguson Social Sciences, the building currently houses the Departments of History, Political Science, Sociology, a Veteran’s Lounge, Global Programs Office, and the Safety and Risk Management Office. Ferguson is the oldest building on campus.
Located in front of Ferguson, the Resting Lion was donated by the summer class of 1929 as their senior gift. The Lion was meant to be a concrete testimony to democracy, friendship, scholarship, and loyalty.
Athletic Facilities
Due to the lack of devoted athletic facilities on campus, City Park was utilized by ETNC students during the early years of the athletics program. Multiple 1917 issues of the East Texan describe the construction of the first athletic fields on campus on three acres of land to be used for football, basketball, baseball, and track. The early fields were located south of Ferguson Hall. According to photographs in the Locust Yearbooks, the site that became known as Lion Field was used as early as 1924. Stadium seating on the west side was constructed by 1929, possibly as early as 1927. Outdoor lighting was added in 1930 allowing for nighttime games. Student seating on the east side was hastily constructed in 1936 in one week by male students involved in the National Youth Administration, a Works Progress Administration program during the Great Depression. The growing popularity of the football team led to a larger stadium being constructed on the west side in 1938. The two sides of the stadium combined could seat around 10,000 people. Lion Field was used by the football and track teams. Lion Field was utilized until Memorial Stadium was constructed in 1950.
The first gymnasium on campus was a two-story wooden structure. Shortly after the building was constructed, a disaster was narrowly avoided after a cigarette stub caused a fire in a pile of sawdust adjacent to the building. The fire was discovered in time to prevent the destruction of the structure, but the building was destroyed by a later fire in 1934. Since the building was partially insured and the lack of an adequate gymnasium was deemed an emergency by the Board of Regents, construction began immediately on a replacement. That replacement would become known as Whitley Gymnasium and was at the time only surpassed in size by gymnasiums at Texas A&M and the University of Texas. The gym featured a regulation playing court, eight dressing rooms with 48 showers, and an electronic scoreboard. Whitley Gymnasium was primarily used by men’s athletics with the women’s programs continuing to use the “Cub Gym” attached to Ferguson Hall. After the Field House was completed, Whitley Gym became the women’s gym. Renovations included the addition of badminton courts, dance studios, and an indoor archery range. Whitley Gym is now used for Lion Football.
Now the location of sand volleyball courts, the area between Whitley Gymnasium and the Field House was once home to an outdoor swimming pool.
Mayo’s Original Dormitories
The oldest of three dormitories was constructed in 1899 at the southeast corner of the intersection of Lee and Campbell Streets. It is likely it housed both male and female students until the construction in 1904 of a dormitory for women, South Dormitory, named for its location from first dormitory. Constructed in 1906, the third Mayo dormitory, North Dormitory, was a men’s residence hall. It was located north, across Lee Street, from first dormitory. The devastating 1911 fire began in a flue in South Dormitory, before spreading north. Most of the male students living in the first dormitory and North Dormitory were able to salvage their belongings before the fire fully spread to their dormitories. The female students residing in South Dormitory were not so lucky. By the time the fire was discovered, the building was fully engulfed in flames.
First Administration Buildings
College Hall, the first building to be constructed on the present-day campus in Commerce, was completed in January 1895. The building included a bell tower, six classrooms, two offices, a library, and an auditorium. In 1905-1906, using funds donated by the citizens of Commerce, the building was renovated and a brick facade was added to the original wooden structure. The newly renovated building was destroyed by fire on January 28, 1907. Not only was classroom space lost, but laboratory equipment, library books, and school records as well. Instructional space was temporarily allocated to the dormitories.
College Hall was located near the present-day Mayo gravesite. While many accounts describe the building as facing north towards Lee Street, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the time consistently depict the building facing Monroe Street.
The second administrative building in Commerce was affectionately known as “Old Main.” It was constructed using funds donated by the citizens of Commerce following the fire that destroyed College Hall. Construction was completed in February 1908. Old Main was a beloved building and was often featured prominently in publications and advertisements for the college. The three-story brick building contained 15 classrooms, two administrative offices, small faculty offices, and an auditorium. Although it was one of the final Mayo buildings on campus, it was demolished in 1950.
Downtown Commerce
Originally located in Cooper, East Texas Normal College moved to Commerce in 1894 following a devastating fire that destroyed the first and only campus building. The fire was one of many occurrences that prompted President Mayo to relocate the college to Commerce. Commerce was desirable partly due to the city’s rail connections and also because of a generous donation of land and money from the city to support the relocation. From September 3 to December 31, 1894, ETNC occupied space in a rented room on Main Street. The location was adjacent to the two-story Odd Fellows Building. The college had only 35 students. In 1895, the college’s first building in Commerce, College Hall, was completed, and the college moved to its present location.
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