"Old" Main Building

Old Main burned on February 12, 1982. Students reported the fire about one in the morning, and it spread to the roof of the neighboring Austin College Building, where bucket brigades saved furniture and antiques from Austin Hall. The building had been dedicated on September 22, 1890, and a pipe organ was installed in 1894. In 1983 the Legislature refused money to rebuild. A memorial was dedicated on April 25, 1987, and the eastern side of the site became a sunken garden.

What the plaque says

"Old" Main Building First permanent structure built by state of Texas for teacher training--when Joseph Baldwin was president of Sam Houston Normal Institute, L. S. Ross was governor, and A. T. McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local board. Cornerstone was laid Sept. 23, 1889, with main address by The Hon. O. M. Roberts, Governor when S.H.N.I. was chartered in 1879. Also present was state school superintendent Oscar H. Cooper, a member of the first faculty. Completed in 1891, Main gave institute its first library, 8 large classrooms, a distinctive chapel. Architect: Alfred Mueller. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 30 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Houston, Margaret Moffette Lea — steps away
• Huntsville Branch Railway, "Tilley's Tap" — 0.3 mi
• St. James United Methodist Church of Huntsville — 0.3 mi
• First Baptist Church of Huntsville — 0.4 mi