Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Campus

The first 5 1/4-acre plot here cost $5,029 in 1906, and the seminary moved in during March 1908. Robert Ernest Vinson was president from 1909 until 1916, when he left to head the University of Texas. During the war Thomas White Currie looked after the property while faculty and students joined the war effort; students registered again by September 29, 1921. Currie became president in 1922 and served until his death in 1943. Under David Leander Stitt, from 1945, the Trull and McMillan buildings and a library later named for him and his wife Jane went up.

What the plaque says

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Campus The Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary held its first classes in a donated building at 9th and Navasota. President T. R. Sampson, hoping to create a strong association between the seminary and the University of Texas, promoted the relocation of the campus closer to the university. In 1906, the seminary board purchased land at this site. With funds from the bequest of former Governor Francis R. Lubbock, a campus refectory (Lubbock Hall) was constructed in 1907. A second, larger building (later named Sampson Hall) was built to house dormitory rooms, offices, classrooms and the library. Both buildings were designed by Austin architect George Endress and constructed of buff brick with Mission Revival detailing. Five faculty homes were built on seminary property in 1909. During World War I, the Presbyterian Seminary closed temporarily and leased its buildings to the United States government until reopening in 1921. The seminary chapel, constructed in 1941, provided a strong focal point for the seminary campus. By 1996, Sampson Hall, Lubbock Hall and the original faculty homes had been razed to make room for other facilities. The seminary's relationship with the University of Texas, spurred by the proximity of the two campuses, continued to evolve over the years through regular classes, Bible chair courses, lecture series and professor exchanges. Relocation to 27th street thus fulfilled President Sampson's dream for many educational opportunities for students at both institutions. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harry Ransom Center — 0.6 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 0.7 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.8 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.2 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary — steps away
• Rebecca Kilgore Stuart Red — steps away
• All Saints' Episcopal Church — steps away
• John Elbridge Hines — 0.3 mi