Austin College

Austin College began in Huntsville. In 1876 the Texas Synod of the Presbyterian Church, United States, decided to move it to Sherman, and the first building there was finished in 1878 with fifty-three students. The Handbook of Texas says the 1913 fire that destroyed the main building was set by a homesick prep-school student. Sherman citizens answered with $50,000 toward a new library and auditorium. A stained-glass window of Stephen F. Austin survived the fire and was installed when a new library opened in 1986.

What the plaque says

Austin College Oldest college in Texas operating under original charter. Founded in 1849 by the Presbytery of Brazos under leadership of Daniel Baker. Named for Stephen F. Austin, father of Texas. Opened in Huntsville with Sam Houston, Anson Jones, and Henderson Yoakum-- Texas statesmen-- among original trustees. Bell donated by Houston hangs in present chapel. For years competence in Greek and Latin was required for admittance. In 1855 opened the first law school in state, and became the first college in Texas to award graduate degrees in 1856. Had the first chapter in Texas of any national fraternity (Phi Delta Theta). Remained open during Civil War although most students joined Confederate army. Post-war problems and epidemics caused move to Sherman in 1876. Oldest building is Luckett Hall (1908), the first building on this campus having been destroyed by arson in 1913. Erected first college Y. M. C. A. building west of the Mississippi River, 1911. In World War I, cooperated with the Student Army Training Corps and admitted first coeds. In World War II, aided Army Air Training Corps. Founded to serve youth of pioneer families, college now enrolls students from all over the world and is a leader in creative Christian liberal arts education. Incise on back: This marker made possible by Austin College Circle, 1970.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 7.8 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 11 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Park of Old Settlers Association of Grayson County — 0.5 mi
• Fred Douglass School — 0.7 mi
• Washington Iron Works Inc. — 1.0 mi
• Site of Old Sherman Opera House — 1.1 mi