Texas Historic Sites Atlas
At the center of the common are the stabilized ruins of Luther Hall, the college's first building which is preserved as a memorial.
The large Renaissance Revival structure was designed by Matthew Dow and housed all of the school's administrative offices and classrooms.
Luther Hall, which occupied a prominent position at the center of the campus, was destroyed by fire in 1929. Rather than rebuild it, administrators decided to preserve a section of the structure's stone arches as a memorial. The stabilized ruins now form a focal point of the campus near the eastern entrance and are all that remains of the campus' earliest architecture.