Our History

Nacogdoches University was founded under a charter granted by the Republic of Texas on February 3, 1845 in response to a petition from the citizens of Nacogdoches who held a public meeting at the courthouse for that purpose on November 1, 1844. This Old University Building is the only building in Texas that was built for a university that was established during the Republic of Texas.

The University was originally housed in the “ Red House“  which was a building downtown that was rented from Judge Bennett Blake for the first school session beginning September 1, 1845. That house has been built by Colonel Piedras, Mexican officer of the 12th Battalion to house the 320 Mexican soldiers sent to Nacogdoches in 1827 to maintain order and control the frontier. After Piedras was driven from Nacogdoches in 1832, Thomas J. Rusk later bought the house for his first Texas home. The University occupied this old adobe and frame house until 1852 when it moved across the street. In 1855 the University purchased the Temperance Hall on Hospital Street.

In 1858/59, the University moved into its new two-story building erected specifically for its educational programs. The modified Greek Revival architecture closely resembled the buildings of the University of Virginia. It was situated on 21 acres of land designated as Washington Square – a four league land grant from the government of the Republic. The original plan called for a church to be located at each of the four corners of the square and the Episcopal Church actually did build on the southwest corner in 1901. J. H. Cato was the architect for the university building which cost about $10,500. Private subscriptions ranging from one dollar to three hundred dollars, as well as land, lumber, pork and labor enabled the community to build the university building. A dormitory building was constructed beside the university building. In addition, a Female College with dormitory, was constructed about the same time on the property that now houses Hardeman House.

When the building opened for classes, 41 males and 41 females were enrolled. They were taught in separate classes in the two large downstairs rooms. The upper level was used as an auditorium and the two small rooms downstairs were for small classes such as music. The two small rooms upstairs were used for the President’s Office and for the living quarters of the first two presidents after the building opened.

By 1862, as the Civil War drew more and more men into the fighting, the University was closed and the building was converted to a hospital for Civil War soldiers. At the end of the war in 1865, the building became the headquarters for the U.S. Reconstruction Administration. Finally, in 1870 the University reopened and in subsequent years it was opened by various school entities. Among them were first, The Catholic Church; next, the Masons; later Keachie College (from Louisiana),  and finally by the University’s own trustees. By the 1890s education in the building included classes for all ages including a high school program. (When the university opened in 1845, there was no such entity as a high school in Texas, so the education at the “university“ was “higher education.“ That meant that some classes were true university level as we know in and some were more like present-day high school classes).

By 1904, Nacogdoches had formed a school district and had had a successful bond election that enabled them to build a high school. OUB trustees deeded the property in buildings on Washington Square to the new local school district. From that year forward until sometime after the end of World War II in 1945, NISD used the OUB for various classes. However, by 1954, the building had fallen into disrepair in the district and no longer needed it for classes. They asked the city to take it for a museum. The city, in turn, asked the women’s organizations in town to form a federation for the purpose of restoring and using the building as a historic site. In 1954, the Nacogdoches County Historical Commission was named trustee and the Nacogdoches Federation of Women’s Clubs was officially made the operational trustees of the building. In 1960, with wide community support, the federation restored the building leaving it on its original site with its original room configuration. It is still maintained by this group of volunteers and is used as a community facility and as a museum.