Burleson Quadrangle

The bronze of Burleson came from an Italian immigrant who arrived with no English. The Handbook of Texas says Pompeo Coppini came to the United States in 1896, to Texas in 1901, and became a citizen in 1902. It dates his Burleson statue at Baylor to 1903, while the plaque says 1905. He went on to the Littlefield Fountain at the University of Texas and the Alamo cenotaph, and Baylor gave him an honorary doctor of fine arts in 1941. His foster daughter and colleague Waldine Tauch also made monuments in Waco.

What the plaque says

Burleson Quadrangle Dr. Rufus C. Burleson was the first president of Baylor's Waco campus and Burleson Quadrangle was named in his honor. With the completion of Baylor's four original buildings—Old Main (1886), Georgia Burleson Hall (1888), the F. L. Carroll Chapel and Library (1903), and the George W. Carroll Science Building (1903), the Quadrangle took on its current appearance, and has since that time served as a social area and a link to Baylor's history and tradition. Burleson Quadrangle has often been the site of the evolving social norms and customs at Baylor. During the 1920s the "Ring Out" ceremony, held every spring in Burleson Quadrangle, became a Baylor tradition and is still performed today. The ceremony involves the passing of an ivy chain from senior students to junior students, and symbolizes the passing of custodianship of the historic bells that are located in the Quadrangle to Baylor's next graduating class. The ceremony was originally performed by female students, but has since grown to also include male students. Since 1945, students have participated in the passing of the key ceremony, also held in the Quadrangle at graduation time. The key opens a Baylor time capsule that was placed in the Quadrangle during the university's 1945 centennial. Burleson Quadrangle is the location of a bronze sculpture of Dr. Burleson, unveiled in 1905 and created by renowned Italian-born Texas sculptor Pompeo Coppini (1870-1957). The centennial monument, also located within the Quadrangle, was constructed in 1945 using stones from Tryon Hall (formerly located at the Independence campus) and several buildings on the Waco campus. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — steps away
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 0.7 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 0.8 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 1.2 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• The Texas Collection — steps away
• Governor Patrick Morris Neff — steps away
• Carroll Library — steps away
• R. E. B. Baylor — steps away