Original Site of Southwestern University

Francis Asbury Mood, a Charleston-born preacher who had run Soule University, argued that the Methodist school should leave the yellow fever belt for a central location. The Handbook says Texas University opened at Georgetown in 1873 with thirty-three students. Within a few years the legislature insisted that the name Texas University belong only to a state institution, and the school became Southwestern. The university claims to be the state's oldest, though that claim rests on its root colleges. Mood died in Waco in November 1884 and was buried in Georgetown.

What the plaque says

Original Site of Southwestern University The Methodist church established four colleges in Texas prior to the Civil War: Rutersville College (1840), Wesleyan College (1844), McKenzie Institute (1848), and Soule University (1856). The Rev. Dr. Francis Asbury Mood (1830-1884) was named president of Soule University in Washington County in 1868. Soon after he took office, plans were begun to relocate the school and develop a centralized Methodist university. About the same time, city leaders in Georgetown began plans to establish a college. This site was donated for that purpose by John J. Dimmitt and G. W. Glasscock, Jr., and a community school, instead of a college, opened in 1870. Georgetown was among the cities competing for the site of the planned Methodist university. In 1873 this property was chosen as the site of the new institution, which was granted a union charter (with the four earlier colleges) in 1875 as Southwestern University. Dr. Mood served as president until his death. Buildings added to the campus after 1873 included a young ladies school, a chapel, a boys dormitory (Giddings Hall), and a gymnasium. Southwestern University moved to its present site in 1900 but continued to operate a preparatory department here until 1916. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 0.4 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 2.0 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 8.4 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 22 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Negro Fine Arts School — steps away
• St. John's United Methodist Church — steps away
• Jessie Daniel Ames — 0.2 mi
• Founding of Georgetown — 0.3 mi