East Gates
The John Tarleton Agricultural College Class of 1925 paid for the construction of the stone gates located at the intersection of McIlhaney Street and Military Drive. Designed by manual arts director Earl A. Funkhouser, the project cost $404.81, with the marble letters alone costing $125. The class of 1935 donated the metal part of the gate that opens and closes, not yet installed in this photograph. The gates were widened in the summer of 1959.
The photograph above is estimated to have been taken between 1929 and 1939. The first two photographs below are dated 1928 and 1965 respectively.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
John Tarleton College Original Building, ABT 1900
The original building of John Tarleton College was built in 1893. It was previously the home of the newly established Stephenville College until that institution closed after the 1895-96 academic year. The building and surrounding six acres were sold at auction, but the trustees of the John Tarleton estate purchased them for $1,251 shortly afterward. John Tarleton College officially opened on September 4, 1899.
The building has had different names in various historical sources: “College Hall,” “Old Stephenville College Building,” “Original John Tarleton College Building,” or “main building.” Until the 1902 construction of the Marston Science Hall, this was the only building on campus. The building is the only one that appears on the campus on a February 1902 Sanborn Fire Insurance map (upper right hand corner of Sheet #3, the first of three maps pictured below. The other maps are from November 1907 and November 1912 respectively).
The College Hall stood south and west of the intersection of the present day Sloan and McIllaney streets, on land now occupied by the campus Heritage Park, directly north of today's Hunewell Dorms for women. A February 1902 Sanborn fire insurance map shows its front porch side to be 100 feet north of Bosque (today's W. Tarleton Street, called Military Drive on campus).
The original two-story wooden structure had four classrooms on the bottom floor and an auditorium upstairs. By the opening of the 1901-1902 session, "the building was doubled in capacity," according to the "Register for 1902-1903." A third floor was added in 1904-1905, according to the "Eighth Annual Catalog."
John Tarleton’s grave was briefly located on the grounds near this building. In early 1897, about a year and a half after Tarleton’s death, his remains were moved there from the Mt. Pisgah cemetery in northern Erath County . A fifteen-foot granite obelisk was erected to mark the grave (visible to the right in the picture above) by the time the "Eighth Annual Catalog" was published sometime in 1907. Tarleton remained interred in this spot until 1928, when he was exhumed in order to built the Auditorium on the site. Today, this same monument can be seen marking Tarleton’s final resting place at the small triangular piece of land located at the intersection of Washington and Lillian streets. A Texas State Historical Marker was added to the site in 1987.
The College Hall was torn down sometime after the Mollie J. Crow Administration building was completed in 1915. Today, the replica Hunewell Bandstand stands roughly in its location.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
The Auditorium
James Thomas Davis, dean of the John Tarleton Agricultural College from 1919 to 1945, was concerned that there was no facility where the entire student body could assemble at one time. Davis obtained $125,000 from the state in 1927 to build and equip an auditorium beginning in the summer of 1928. Completed in late 1929, the Auditorium had seating for 1,577 individuals. The Fine Arts Department occupied the first floor of the building. It was located in today's Heritage Park, across from the Hunewell dorms, about where the Hunewell Bandstand is now located. The Auditorium became the center of campus social and cultural life. With the opening of the Clyde Wells Fine Arts Center, the Auditorium was demolished in 1982. Today, all that remains of the structure are the steps on Military Drive near the corner with McIlhaney Street.
The image above was taken sometime between 1929 and 1939.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
College Hospital under construction, 1920-1921
The first College Hospital was built in 1920-1921 by Mr. Earl A. Funkhouser's carpentry class. It was located behind and between the Auditorium (demolished in 1982) and the Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building (razed in 1981), on the north side of today's Heritage Park.
In May 1936, the color of this building was yellow. By 1949, the building was being called the Lucy Hennigan hospital, in honor of the head school nurse from 1925-1944 and 1946-1949. Sometime before 1955, two additions were made to this building.
A new hospital (called the Student Health Center) at the southeast corner of campus, at Washington and McIlheny, was completed and opened in Fall 1959. It later became Nursing Department (renovated 1983) and is now Welcome Center (renovated 2011-2012). The old hospital was torn down and the lumber salvaged and sold sometime after the new hospital opened.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Marston Science Hall
Marston Science Hall, the first red brick building to be constructed on campus, was built in late 1902 with bricks donated by Mr. Edgar L. Marston, owner of the Texas and Pacific Coal Company and the Thurber Brick Company. The photograph above first appears in the university's printed catalogs/bulletins in an edition published in 1903. According to page 21 of the Sixth Annual Catalog (published in 1905), it was constructed and equipped at a cost of $7,000.
That catalog goes on to describe the physical laboratory in the building (on pages 22):
"This laboratory is one of the best to be found in the state. The apparatus has been bought with the view of giving the student accurate quantitative experimental work. Many pieces of apparatus that are needed and are not found on hand are constructed in the work shop. The following is a partial list of the apparatus in use: Improved spiral spring balance, acceleration machine, metric rules, calipers, thermometers, barometers, galvanometers, resistance boxes, standard cells, microscopes, air pump, large electric machines, x-ray and vacuum tubes; telegraph and telephone apparatus, a sixty-light dynamo and a good supply of laboratory supports."
The chemistry lab was described as follows on page 27 of the Eighth Annual Catalog (published in 1907):
"The chemical laboratory situated in the Science Hall is fitted for eighteen students working at once. It is provided with sink, hood, lockers and apparatus for performing all experiments of the two years' course offered. A full line of chemicals is kept on hand. Each student is supplied with individual apparatus consisting of lamps, beakers, tubes, blow pipes, evaporating dishes, etc."
The building was located on the northeast corner of the current campus, on the northwest side of the intersection of W. Sloan Street and N. McIlhaney Street, about where the present-day Physical Facilities and Physical Plant buildings are located. As indicated on the November 1907 (sheet 3) and November 1912 (sheet 6) Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps pictured below, it was across Sloan Street from the John Tarleton College original wooden building.
The building was small and rapidly became outgrown and outdated. The completion of the Mollie J. Crow Administration (later Home Economics) Building in 1915 allowed science classrooms to be relocate there, and the Marston Science Hall was torn down. Its bricks were reused to construct the Marston Fine Arts Conservatory, which was the music department's home until 1929. After that, the building was renamed Marston Hall, and was used for various purposes until it was demolished in 1950 after it was deemed to be structurally unsound.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building
Named after wealthy Erath County resident Mrs. Mollie J. Crow, who in 1910 bequeathed a majority of the funds used to construct the $50,000 building, the Mollie J. Crow Administration Building (as it was originally called) was completed in 1915. The three-story red brick and native stone building had wooden floors and embossed metal ceilings, and had an auditorium with seating for 600, and 13 classrooms as well as offices. The building originally housed the Home Economics department in just two rooms in the basement.
The Library was located in the building until 1918, in the central room on the east side of the top floor of the building. By 1919, most offices had moved into the new Administration Building (today's E. J. Howell Education Building), and this building was called the Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building. After the Auditorium building was completed in 1929, the Home Economics department used the auditorium in its building for style shows and workshops.
The Home Economics department moved into an new addition to the Health and Physical Education Building in the summer of 1977. This building temporarily housed the Agriculture Department in 1979-80 while their building was being remodeled. The Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building was razed in 1981. It stood where the Military Memorial is today.
In the photograph above, the College Hospital (1922 - 1959) can be seen in the background on the right. This photograph has "1921-1922" written on the back. The photographs below are dated 1915, 1921 ("The Cookery Room"), 1937, and 1956, respectively.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Administration Building
This building, completed in 1919 at a cost of $150,000 (according to the Bulletin of the John Tarleton Agricultural College, May 1, 1920, page 68), was originally planned to house the Agriculture Department. However, the 1920 yearbook, the Grassburr, already referred to it as the Administration Building. It also contained the Library by September 1920. By April 15, 1925 (according to the Bulletin, page 20), it also had offices for other departments, including English, history, mathematics, military science, modern languages, biology, economics, and education, as well as classrooms. By March 15, 1926 (according to the Bulletin, page 24), the Agriculture Department had relocated to a two- story wood frame building at the northeast corner of campus, near McIlhaney and Vanderbilt streets (torn down in late 1951).
Over the years, departments and offices moved out of the Administration Building (including Administration in 1986), and by 1989, the building was occupied exclusively by the Education Department. It was renamed the E. J. Howell Education Building in 1997 (in honor of Dr. Eugene Jody Howell, president of John Tarleton Agricultural College / Tarleton State College 1945-1966) and is the oldest building on campus today.
An inscription on the front of the building says:
The John Tarleton Agricultural College
In Texas, the great call is the call of the soil. Other commonwealths may strive for empire in swift industry or in trade or in shipping. We hold no jealousies but on our thousand miles of prairie the buzz of the bee and the buzz of the mower are telling of our plenty youth. Listen to the call: the soil is our mother.
Until 1951, the carved sign above the entrance read AGRICULTURE, when it was changed to ADMINISTRATION (as pictured in the photograph immediately below). It was changed to read EDUCATION during an 18-month remodeling in 1988-1989.
The photograph above was taken sometime after 1920, when the flagpole was installed, but likely before 1929. The other photograph below (after the 1951 sign), which also shows the Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building, is dated 1922. The color photographs are from February and March 2013.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Flagpole Dedication, 2 November 1920
The flagpole stands in front of the E. J. Howell Education Building (formerly the Administration Building). Erected in 1920, it initially stood 100 feet tall. It features a plaque at its base with the names of students, faculty, staff, Stephenville residents, and others who contributed donations for its construction. Over the years, the pole was shortened due to damage from storms that bent it.
Also visible in this image are the Administration (Howell) Building and the Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building (since razed). The dirt road on the right is what will later be Military Drive. The back of the photo above has the date November 2, 1920. The photo immediately below is dated 1935, and the flagpole can be seen to the right of Military Drive with the Trodgon House in the background. The two color photographs below that, of the flagpole and its base, were posted to Instagram on June 20, 2013, and March 14, 2013, respectively.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
The Canon in 1939
The 1902 cannon in front of the E.J. Howell Education Building was brought to campus in 1922 for ROTC training purposes. The cannon was also frequently fired during celebrations and special events until the outbreak of World War II. Firings were ceased because blank ammunition became rather scarce during the war years. Shortly thereafter Dean J. Thomas Davis ordered the muzzle sealed and the barrel welded into a fixed position. In 1946, the cannon was placed in its current location where it has remained stationary and silent since.
This photograph appeared in the October 10, 1939 J-TAC student newspaper. The young women are Tarleton Cadet Corps Sponsors. From left to right, they are Tua Richardson of Stephenville; Martine Black, Bettie Wylie, and Elizabeth Dyess, all of Albany; Ernestine Fennigan of Eldorado; Betty Elliott and Fredda Carlisle of Breckenridge; and Maxine Coleman of Eastland.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Science (now Mathematics) Building
The photograph above shows the Science (now Mathematics) building with three of its five sections. The first part (the "North Wing," the bottom of the L in the photo above), an 8,755 square-foot three-story brick structure, was constructed in 1930-1931. The second section of 21,489 square feet was finished in 1935. Work on the 19,188 square-foot third section began in early 1937, and it was completed in time for classes in Fall 1938.
The fourth section (changing the "L" shape above to a squared-off "C") was completed in 1950, which added another 12,450 square feet to the building. In 1960, a 2,617 square-foot lecture room was added to the west side of the building, giving it the "E" shape it has today.
Although originally intended to house science and engineering classrooms, labs, and offices, much of the first floor of the building also housed the library from 1935 until the Dick Smith Library was constructed in 1956. When the Library moved out, other academic departments and college offices moved in.
The new Lamar Johansen Science Building was completed in 2001. The building underwent renovations from 2003 to 2006. The Department of Mathematics became the primary occupant, so the structure is known as the Mathematics (or Math) Building today.
Clearly visible in the photograph above in the upper right is Hays Field with its bleachers (Memorial Stadium was not ready for use until 1951). Davis Hall (constructed in 1936) can be seen at the top center of the photograph. Two dormitories (which appear on a March 1949 Sanborn Fire Insurance map) are to the left of Davis Hall. These dorms, former barracks used as bachelor officer quarters at Eagle Mountain Lake (according to page 2 of the September 10, 1946, J-TAC), were moved to campus and in operation by September 2, 1946, to house veterans attending Tarleton after World War II. The dorms were later named for alumni and former faculty members who died in the war, Henry Frey and A. B. Yearwood (according to page 1 of the December 14, 1948, J-TAC). Frey Hall burned on November 6, 1951 (page 1, November 13, 1951, J-TAC) and Yearwood Hall was torn down in spring 1959 (page 5, May 5, 1959, J-TAC). All of this information helps to date the photograph to the September 1949 - March 1949 period.
Photographs below show an undated view of the Science (Math) Building from the Doc Blanchard Boulevard side, an undated view of the entrance to the library area in the building (1936-1955), a 1937 view of construction of the third section of the building, and a view of the 1960 construction of the lecture hall (which appears in the 1961 Grassburr yearbook on page 45).
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Library
The library has moved many times since Tarleton opened. It began in a southwest corner classroom of the first campus building, College Hall. When a third floor was added to that building in 1904, the library moved up to that floor. When the Mollie J. Crow Administration (later Home Economics) Building was constructed in 1915, the library was put on its top floor, in a central room on the east side. In 1918, it moved to the northeast corner of the new Mary Corn Wilkerson women's dorm. A year later, it was relocated to the ground floor of the new Administration Building (now the E. J. Howell Education Building). In 1928, it was moved to the north wing of the new Dining Hall, and in 1935, to the central part of the first floor of the Science (now Mathematics) Building. It expanded into the southwest wing of that building in 1951, as was located here through the 1955-56 school year.
In March 1955, the A&M Board of Directors authorized spending $400,000 to construct a separate library building. Work began in October and the two-story red brick building was ready for use by September 1956. It was named for former government professor Dick Smith in March 1974.
The building pictured above (and in the first three photos below, in 1957) has undergone some changes since then. In 1968, a classroom annex was added to the west side of the building and called the Math and Language Building. This area was incorporated into the rest of the building with a renovation in 2006. In 1985, a three-story section was added to the front of the building (with the bottom level being a daylight basement). Thus, the original 1956 building is now the central part of today's library.
The fourth photo below shows the interior of the present building before the 1985 renovation.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
The Dean's House (now the Trogdon House), 1923
The building pictured is actually the second Dean's House on campus. The first was a wooden structure built in 1917 about where today's Gough Hall is located. This stone, stucco, and plaster two-story house was built in 1923.
Dean J. Thomas Davis helped design the house and employed students and local laborers to built it. It became know as the President's House in 1948 when the college dean became the college president. Presidents E.J. Howell and W.O. Trogdon occupied this house from 1945 until 1982. That year, incoming president Barry B. Thompson decided to live off-campus. The building was then called the Hall of Presidents, and housed various campus offices over the years.
The building was recognized with a Texas state historical marker in 1989, and renamed the "Trogdon House" in 1999 in honor of the most recent occupant.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
Fishpond 1923-1924
Donated by the John Tarleton Agricultural College Class of 1923, the fishpond stood due east of what is now the E. J. Howell Education Building (formerly the Administration Building, 1919-1986). It was across Military Way, between the former dining hall site and Gough (former women's residence) Hall, a little west of the current Alumni Island area where the John Tarleton statue and fountain erected in 2015 are located.
The fishpond featured a statue of a child or cherub holding a fish and standing in a water-filled basin. It was inscribed "Prof. J. L. Riley, 1917-1923. Our appreciation for his services, Senior class of 1923." Joseph Riley was head of the mathematics department and one of the faculty advisors to the Class of 1923. The fishpond was said to have been removed in the late 1950s.
The photograph above appears at the end of the February 20, 1924, Bulletin of the John Tarleton Agricultural College (Volume VII, Number 7). The Mollie J. Crow Home Economics Building can be seen in the background, across Military Drive. The three photographs below are undated, but likely from the same time period.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
South Gates
The John Tarleton Agricultural College Classes of 1932 and 1934 paid for the construction of the stone gates in front of today's Administration building on Washington Street. These gates were closed to thru-traffic in 1984 when construction began on the Administration building. Visible in the background between the gates is the first Hunewell Bandstand, which was completed in 1928. Also visible to either side of the gates are the rock walls constructed in the 1930s. The gentleman standing in the front near the center, in the dark suit with the bow tie, is James Thomas Davis, dean of the college from 1919 to 1945.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.
1939 Bonfire Incident
In the 90-plus-year history of Tarleton's bonfire, only one has reached historic proportions - the bonfire of 1939. John Tarleton Agricultural College and North Texas Agricultural College in Arlington had an intense football rivalry that stretched back to 1917. The rivalry reached feverish proportions during the 1930s and frequent bonfire raids by opposing students were common. On Nov. 29, 1939, two days before the traditional football game, and in retaliation for the burning of the NTAC bonfire by Tarleton students the night before, an NTAC student and an accomplice flew over and attempted to bomb Tarleton bonfire.
L.V. Risinger, who was one of several students on guard, hurled a 2x4 into the air in which struck the propeller and disabled the plane. The pilot glided over what is now the Trogdon House and crash-landed in a clump of trees in Hunewell Park, which was located near present-day Administration Building and Tarleton Center.
The tour was curated by Tarleton State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives & The Division of Institutional Advancement.