Marker Number: 17691
Marker Text:
Secondary education is a familiar institution in Marshall with academies dating back to the 1840s. During a 1911 banquet for donors to the new Southern Methodist University, Dr. William T. Tardy, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, was present. Invited to offer remarks, he urged the Methodists to begin a college in Marshall. In response, the Methodist leaders promised support for a Baptist College if Dr. Tardy would undertake it. In 1912, the charter for the college of Marshall was sealed for a two-year school, or junior college. Dr. Tardy negotiated the purchase of 100 acres of the original K.M. Van Zandt plantation. Fifty acres were to be sold to pay off the note. This along with numerous donations, community fundraisers and support from the Baptist general convention of Texas helped raise funds to erect educational buildings on campus.
Under the leadership of the first president, Thurman C. Gardner, Marshall Hall, an educational facility with a gymnasium, laboratories, library, offices and classrooms, was completed in 1916. The first freshman class registered in 1917 and, by the 1918-1919 academic year, around 300 students were enrolled. By the 1920s, dormitories encircled the campus quadrangle. An additional 43 acres were purchased in 1935, including the land and buildings of the St. Joseph’s Boys Industrial Orphanage, some of which was converted to men’s housing. During WWII, enrollment dropped severely but the college saw a vigorous postwar enrollment and building boom. In 1944, the college changed its name to East Texas Baptist College and was authorized to offer bachelors’ degrees, and, in 1984, it was renamed East Texas Baptist University. The university continues to serve the honorable goal for higher education in East Texas.
Marker is the property of the State of Texas (2013)
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