The Main Building of the University of Texas at Austin (better known as the Tower) has a magnificent and tragic history.
From the Texas Exes website the overview of the Tower: (
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"Welcome to The Main Building and Tower, an icon here at the University of Texas at Austin. The Tower is 307-feet tall and houses an observation deck at the top that offers a panoramic view of the UT Campus and the gorgeous city of Austin. In fact, Texas law prohibits blocking the view from the Tower to the State Capitol downtown.
The Tower was built in the 1930s to serve as the University's library, but now houses several administrative offices. There are many unique architectural features to the Tower, including lists of famous writers and places of learning throughout history wrapped around the East and West sides. One of the most important inscriptions on the Tower is a statement of the University's core purpose: "To transform lives for the benefit of society," added by President William Powers.
The Tower houses the Knicker Carillon which chimes every 15 minutes. The Carillon has 56 bells and is the largest carillon in Texas. It is played every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:50 am and is a treat to listen to as you're walking across campus.
The area in front of the Tower is known as the Main Mall, with the East and West Malls to the sides of the Tower. Garrison Hall, which houses the History department, and Battle Hall, that has the Architecture and Planning Library, flank the Main Mall. The Main Mall hosts many events throughout the year, including Gone to Texas, a new student welcome program at the beginning of the school year, and the Texas A&M Hex Rally in the Fall, as well as the Commencement ceremony in the Spring. Various social and cultural events take place on the Main Mall as well, put on by UT's wide variety of student organizations.
The Tower is usually flood-lit in white, but upon special occasions, such as athletic or academic accomplishments, the Tower is lit in burnt orange. Walking towards the Main Mall and seeing the Tower lit orange against a dark night sky after a UT victory is a memorable experience and favorite picture opportunity for many students."
And of course, the darker history of 1 Aug 1966 from Texas Monthly: (
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"On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower with three rifles, two pistols, and a sawed-off shotgun. The 25-year-old architectural engineering major and ex-Marine—who had previously complained of searing headaches and depression—had already murdered his mother, Margaret, and his wife, Kathy, earlier that morning. He fired his first shots just before noon, aiming with chilling precision at pedestrians below. “The crime scene spanned the length of five city blocks . . . and covered the nerve center of what was then a relatively small, quiet college town,” noted executive editor Pamela Colloff in her 2006 oral history of the shootings. “Hundreds of students, professors, tourists, and store clerks witnessed the 96-minute killing spree as they crouched behind trees, hid under desks, took cover in stairwells, or, if they had been hit, played dead.”
At the time, there was no precedent for such a tragedy. Whitman “introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public space,” wrote Colloff. By the time he was gunned down by an Austin police officer early that afternoon, he had shot 43 people, thirteen of whom died.
The shootings garnered international attention. “The cover of Life the next week made a big impression on all of us,” UT alumnus Shelton Williams told Texas Monthly in 2006. “The photo, which was taken from the victim’s point of view, was of the Tower, as seen through a window with two gaping bullet holes in it. From that vantage point it looked menacing, even evil—not the triumphant symbol of football victories we were used to.”
At year’s end, the Associated Press and United Press International ranked the shootings as the second most important story of 1966, behind only the war in Vietnam. The massacre would spur the creation of SWAT teams across the country. Because such tactical teams did not exist at the time of Whitman’s crime, many students had risked their own lives to fire back at the unseen sniper, or to help wounded strangers to safety.
The incident was arguably the most painful in UT’s history and the university tried for years, unsuccessfully, to erase its memory. That changed in 1999—33 years after the murders—when president Larry Faulkner agreed to allow a place of reflection to be created behind the Tower, dedicated to Whitman’s victims, and a memorial service to be held."
When Mama Blaster was an undergrad at UT in the 1980s, the Tower observation deck had been closed for decades. But being charming and bold, she managed to talk her way into a brief tour of the deck from one of the three UT police who manned an office at the very top of the tower (to keep folks like mama Blaster off the deck).
The University Commencement exercises are held in the shadow of the tower on the Main Mall. Mama Blaster got to attend those exercises twice as a graduate and once as an unofficial guest.
In 2011, Mama Blaster was finally able to go onto the Tower Observation deck with permission of the University -- the tower deck had been reopened to the public. It was 04 Aug 2011. We happened to be up there on the tour with the son of Austin Police Officer McCoy, who was one of the two APD officers who killed Whitman and ended his rampage. This building will forever be tied to UT pride and national tragedy -- something that could not be foreseen when the cornerstone was laid in the south portico in 1936.