Trinity Lutheran College

The Handbook says Trinity Lutheran College was chartered on March 22, 1906, by Texas Swedish Lutherans, and counts it, with Texas Wesleyan College at Austin, as one of the two colleges the state's Swedes sponsored. Both closed by the 1930s. In 1929 a partial merger joined Trinity with the Lutheran College of Seguin, which was renamed Texas Lutheran College in 1932 and became a senior college in 1948. The plaque credits the Augustana Synod, a Swedish-American church body, with founding it, while the Handbook's charter wording names the Texas Swedish Lutherans.

What the plaque says

Trinity Lutheran College Founded by the Augustana Lutheran Synod, in 1904 synod representatives, seeking a location, selected Round Rock because of an offer of a well, 14 city lots, and freight concessions on building materials hauled by International & Great Northern Railroad. Cornerstone was laid on July 13, 1905, for a three-story native stone school building. With Dr. J. A. Stamline serving as president, first session opened Oct. 2, 1906. There were four faculty members, 48 academic students, and 11 enrolled in the music department. Total enrollment rose to 96 during the first year. Successive presidents were Alfred Anderson, 1909-1914; Theodore Seashore, 1914-1921; Dr. J. A. Stamline and Oscar Nelson, ad interim, 1921-1923; and Harry A. Alden, 1923-1929. Despite such recognition as state accreditation (achieved 1920), school failed financially. In 1929 it merged with Evangelical Lutheran College, which was founded in 1891 at Brenham, moved to Seguin 1912, and with this merger became Texas Lutheran College. On the vacated Round Rock campus, Lutheran Welfare Society on Oct. 9, 1929, opened Trinity Lutheran Homes, to care for children and aged persons. In 1972 only one of the former college buildings still survives. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 1.2 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.
• Inner Space Cavern — 6.8 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.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 8.7 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.
• Mount Bonnell — 15 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

• Round Rock — 0.5 mi
• Otto Reinke Building — 0.6 mi
• Sam Bass' Death Site — 0.7 mi
• In Memory of The Pioneer Builders — 0.9 mi