Scottish Rite Dormitory - Austin, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 30° 17.536 W 097° 44.368
14R E 621222 N 3351844
Added to the NRHP on April 23rd, 1998, (under #98000404), the Scottish Rite Dormitory in Austin, TX opened in 1922 as a female residence for the nearby University of Texas; it is nowadays one of the last remaining "females only" dorms on campus.
Waymark Code: WMNBXW
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2015
Views: 2
A brief historical background, per its own
website:
"In 1920, Samuel P. Cochran, the Executive Head of the Scottish Rite Masonry in Texas, recognized that there was a lack of suitable housing for young women who were attending The University of Texas. He asked the Scottish Rite Bodies in Texas to donate the necessary funds to build a dormitory. In 1922, the dormitory opened the doors to its present building. It is a gift of Scottish Rite Masons in tribute to, and in interest of, aspiring young women.
As per the Charter, Scottish Rite Dormitory was built to provide a home-like atmosphere for the young women attending The University of Texas at Austin. The primary objective of Scottish Rite Dormitory is to promote the spiritual, mental, and physical development of our residents during their stay at SRD.
SRD has housed thousands of young women attending The University of Texas. We look forward to being a part of the lives of all of those young women who choose to make SRD their home-away-from-home during their stay at UT."
Also, an informal background on the dorm itself, per
Wikipedia:
"The Scottish Rite Dormitory is a private women's dorm for the University of Texas built and operated by the Scottish rite of Freemasons in Austin, Texas. Located just north of campus on 27th Street and Whitis Avenue, the colonial revival style building was completed in 1922 during a housing shortage on campus and was intended to provide housing for the daughters and relatives of Master Masons.
Since its origin the building has relaxed its entry requirements somewhat, but is still well-known among UT students for its strict rules against male visitors. It is one of the more expensive private dorms in the UT area. Many girls are wait-listed for entry to the dorm beginning in high school or earlier."
The dormitory was designed by Herbert Miller Greene, a prominent Dallas architect who in the early 1920's was chosen by the UT Board of Regents to become the university's official architect. Over the course of the next decade he designed a number of buildings for the Austin campus in the prevailing Mediterranean-influenced Beaux-Arts style, among them Garrison Hall, Littlefield Dormitory, the Biology Building, Gregory Gymnasium, the Chemistry Building, and Waggener Hall.
Scottish Rite Dormitory is not officially on UT campus grounds but is considered part of the overall University zone: its Colonial Revival architecture fits quite well with the other aforementioned "official" UT campus buildings.