Columns of a Building of Old Baylor University

The women of Baylor began in an older building. The Handbook of Texas says the female students first stayed in the old frame building of Independence Academy. After Rufus Burleson separated the sexes in 1851, Horace Clark became principal of the female department, and in 1855 the women moved into a stone building built to Clark's design. Its tall columns are the only part of Baylor still standing in Independence. The Baptist State Convention moved the women's college to Belton in 1886, where it opened on September 13.

What the plaque says

Columns of a Building of Old Baylor University Outgrowth of efforts of Judge R. E. B. Baylor and others; chartered by Republic of Texas on Feb. 1, 1845; opened 1846--Baylor is the oldest university in Texas operating under original name. Until moving (1886) to Belton and Waco, Baylor was located here for 40 years, under Presidents H. L. Graves, R. C. Burleson, G. W. Baines (whose great grandson, Lyndon Baines Johnson, became 36th U.S. president), and W. C. Crane. These columns mark site of Baylor Female College; men attended Baylor University, on hill to the south, across the "River Jordan". Restored 1952 by ex-students and friends under leadership of Baylor Historical Society. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — steps away
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 12 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 17 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Female Department of Baylor University — steps away
• Dr. Horace G. Clark — steps away
• John Prince Coles — steps away
• Site of the Home of General Sam Houston and Family — steps away