Doyle Farm

It was 1878 before the first class met, in the Doyle farmhouse. Sorin had also bought 123 adjoining acres from Col. Willis L. Robards. By 1881 two frame schoolhouses stood here and the school took the name St. Edward's Academy, for Sorin's patron, the English king. The state chartered it as Saint Edward's College in 1885. In 1889 the campus moved to the Robards tract, to a main building by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton. Fire destroyed that building in 1903, the 1922 tornado wrecked a dormitory and killed a student, and in 1925 it became St. Edward's University.

What the plaque says

Doyle Farm Arrival on Sept. 21, 1874, of two brothers of Holy Cross at the Doyle Farm James Doyle (1795?-1866). A native of Ireland, came to Texas in 1835. He was a stonemason, and in 1853 had charge of part of the work on the limestone Capitol being built in Austin. Also in 1853, he bought 498 acres of land and opened a farm at this site. His devout widow, Mary Doyle (d. 1871), in 1872 deeded 398 acres of the farm to Father Edward Sorin, Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame University, for "the establishment of a college, school, or other educational institution. St. Edward's was not to open for several years, but Father Sorin sent Brother John of the Cross (Peter) Hanratty and Brother Maximus (Eugene) Petit to put the farm to use while school plans were pending. Arriving Sept. 21, 1874, they found a large dwelling house and other facilities, and gradually acquired livestock and tools. For years, Doyle Farm furnished food for St. Edward's staff and students, and later it was also to fund building programs. Brother Maximus lived out his days here. This marker stands near his grave. Since 1874 a great university has developed out of the gift of Mrs. Doyle and the work of the pioneering brothers of Holy Cross. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Barton Springs Pool — 3.2 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• McKinney Falls State Park — 3.3 mi
  Limestone falls on Onion Creek inside Austin, where people camped under a rock overhang for thousands of years and a financier of the Texas Revolution built his stone ranch house.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 3.3 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Cemetery — 3.4 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.

More markers nearby

• Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Expedition — 0.9 mi
• Texas Dental Association — 1.4 mi
• Texas School for the Deaf — 2.3 mi
• Broken Spoke — 2.5 mi