Historic Campus Walking Tour
The main purpose of the Office of Special Collections and Archives at Southwestern is to collect, document, preserve, and make accessible artifacts and records associated with the University's past. As part of that, they document the history of the buildings on campus past and present. And as part of that, Special Collections and Archives has developed a Campus Walking Tour.
The entries on this theme were written by Megan Firestone, Head of Special Collections and Archives to provide a brief history of how each building came to be, what it has been used for, and when it was either moved, destroyed, or added onto.
Bishops Memorial Union
Bishops Memorial Union served as the first on-campus student center replacing the Pirates Tavern that was located across the street from Cullen. Designed by Cameron Fairchild, the space was named for university alumni and a faculty member who had been elected bishops in the Methodist Church. The…
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Ladies Annex
The first building built on the current Southwestern University campus.
This stop is at a building that no longer exists. The Ladies’ Annex, built in 1889, was the first building constructed on today’s campus. Built in the French Revival Style, the Annex was a self-contained boarding and classroom facility for the women who attended Southwestern. In addition to…
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Laura Kuykendall Hall
The displaced residents of the Ladies’ Annex were temporarily housed in Mood Hall, with the male residents of Mood being housed throughout the community. The university acted quickly to construct a new building for its female students and named it in honor of Laura Kuykendall, Dean of Women,…
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Cody Memorial Library
First free-standing library for the university.
Cody Memorial Library was the first freestanding library on today’s campus. The building was named in honor of C.C. (Claude Carr) Cody, Southwestern’s first Dean, close friend of Francis Asbury Mood, and beloved professor of mathematics. Designed by Cameron Fairchild, it cost $81,000 to construct,…
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Mood-Bridwell Hall
Mood-Bridwell is the second oldest building on today’s campus. Named in honor of the first president of Southwestern, Francis Asbury Mood, the building is in the Richardson Romanesque style constructed of limestone blocks quarried at the nearby Brushy Creek Quarry in Round Rock, TX. The Belford…
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Cullen [Administration] Building
This building, perhaps the most recognizable building on campus, is also the oldest standing building on campus today. Constructed of limestone in the Richardson Romanesque style, it took two years to build. The administration building set the architectural tone and style of the campus. The…
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