History
A&M College Consolidated Rural School
The state of Texas granted a charter for an independent school district to encompass the Texas A&M College campus in 1909. Because there was not a sufficient number of students in the district to support a school, A&M president William Bizzell and professor Martin Hayes, head of the department of vocational teaching, persuaded the leaders of three surrounding common school districts to send their…
History
African American Education in College Station
Formal education for African Americans in Brazos County began as a result of the Public School Act of 1871. Classes were held in many small community and church-related schools, and by 1923 there were 127 African American students in the A&M Consolidated School District.
History
Alexander Methodist Chapel
Organized in 1854 by Robert Alexander, Circuit Rider. First church built of hand-hewn logs in 1856 by early settlers, George Fullerton, Hugh Henry, Jim Walker, John Walker, E.W. Thompson and others. Ten acres of church land donated by Eliz Boatwright and John Singleton was deeded to the following trustees: James Walker, William Lawrence, John B. Wallace, William Glass and Harvey Mitchell.
History
Allen Academy
This school originated as Madison Academy, founded in 1886 in Madisonville by John Hodges Allen (1854-1920), an educator from Mississippi. When his brother Rivers O. Allen (1865-1925) joined him in 1896, the institution became Allen Academy, a private boarding school for boys. During the summer of 1899, the Allens moved the school to Bryan.
Architecture
Astin-Porter Home
Built for Onah (Ward) Astin (d. 1944), the wife of cotton planter James H. Astin (d. 1897), this house was designed by the Waco firm of Howard Messer and S. Wemyss Smith. Construction began in 1901 and was completed two years later. The exterior of the Classical Revival residence features a two-story gallery with Corinthian columns.
History
Black Education in Bryan
On March 30, 1885, the City of Bryan purchased seven lots in this area as a site for a public school to provide separate but equal and impartial instruction for black children of the community, as prescribed by the Texas State Constitution of 1876. The "Bryan Public School for Colored" was the first educational institution established for blacks in Brazos County.
History
Brazos County
Brazos County, part of Stephen F. Austin's colony, was created from Washington County in 1841. It was first named Navasota County, with Boonville as the county seat. In 1842 the name was changed to Brazos County. Through the Civil War, Millican, located at the end of the railroad from Houston, was a major town.
History
Brazos County Confederate Commissioners Court
Furnished horses, equipment and clothing for county men in the Civil War. Levied war taxes on property, exempting lands or estates of Confederate soldiers. After surveying to determine needs of the families of Brazos soldiers, appropriated funds to care for them. Gave credits for contributions made by citizens to soldiers' dependents.
Transport
Bryan & College Interurban Railway
Bryan mayor J.T. Maloney and the city's Retail Merchants Association incorporated the Bryan & College Interurban Railway Company in 1909. The company was created to establish an interurban railway service between Bryan, a town of about 4,000 people, and the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College (Texas A&M), with a student and faculty population of about 750.
Military
Bryan Air Force Base
During World War II, construction of Bryan Army Air Field (Bryan AAF) began in August 1942. The U.S. Army Air Forces site grew out of a war department initiative to train pilots and instructors. The site was the only instrument instructor school for some time, and the airfield hosted more than 1,000 Women Army Service Pilots (WASPS), 38 of whom died during training.
History
Bryan City Cemetery
Established on June 13, 1868, three years after the townsite of Bryan was dedicated. Land for the graveyard--20 acres then on the northern edge of Bryan--was sold to the city for $100 by landowner J.C. Hubert. The first addition of land was made June 15, 1915; the area is now 48 acres. Many prominent early citizens are buried here.
History
Carter, Richard, Homesite
In 1831, Richard Carter (1789-1863), Virginia native and War of 1812 veteran, came from Alabama and received a grant of land within the Stephen F. Austin Colony at the site of what is now the City of College Station. He became one of the area's wealthiest land and slave owners, raising cattle, corn, and cotton during the years before the Civil War.
Architecture
Cavitt House
Attorney William R. Cavitt (1849-1924) purchased a city block here in 1875, the year he married Mary Mitchell. Cavitt became Brazos County Attorney in 1878 and about 1880 he and Mary built a brick Italianate residence here. Cavitt later served as a State Legislator and on the Board of Texas A&M University.
Architecture
Charlie Eric Jenkins
English native Charlie E. Jenkins came to America in 1873 and to Bryan in 1878. One of Bryan's most prolific and talented builders of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Jenkins' legacy of distinctive structures has been recognized by national and state organizations for their historic and architectural significance.
Transport
College Station Railroad Depots
In 1871 Texas governor Edmund Davis appointed three commissioners to select a site for the newly established Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M College). The commissioners chose this location in large part because of the existence of the Houston and Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad line which began in southeast Texas and extended through this area to Bryan (5 mi. north).
Architecture
E. J. Jenkins House
This house was constructed in 1893 by prominent Bryan builder Charlie Jenkins for his brother Edwin James Jenkins (1867-1959). A native of England, E.J. Jenkins came to Bryan in 1878. He operated a drugstore in downtown Bryan for over 50 years and served as Mayor and a City Councilman.
History
Early Play-By-Play Radio Broadcast of a College Football Game
In 1920, David J. Finn and other Texas A&M electrical engineering students attempted to broadcast the football game at Oklahoma A&M via ham radio. When the plan failed they used a telephone backup, relaying game updates to fans gathered in the Texas A&M stock judging pavilion.
History
Early Texas A&M Campus Housing
When Texas A&M University opened in 1876, it was four miles from Bryan, the nearest town, and the need for campus housing for faculty and staff arose. The first of the campus houses, five brick homes along the east side of Throckmorton Street, were built in 1876. By 1938, there were more than one hundred homes on campus.
Architecture
Edge House
Completed in 1925 for the family of prominent Bryan merchant Eugene Edge (1879-1954) and his wife Cora Zulch (d. 1939), this two-and-one-half story brick house reflects the Georgian Revival style. Defining features include its symmetrical composition, entry portico with Doric columns, stone quoins, gabled dormers, and fanlight transom. After the deaths of Mr. and Mrs.
History
El Camino Real
Great thoroughfare of pioneer Texas, stretching 1,000 miles from Saltillo, Mexico, to present Louisiana. The general route followed ancient Indian and buffalo trails, but the oldest marked portion, known as "Trail of the Padres", was blazed in 1691 under Domingo Teran de los Rios, first Governor of Texas.
Architecture
Eugene Edge Home
This Queen Anne style residence features a two-story wraparound porch with a decorative balustrade. The front porch, with its Doric columns and triangular pediment over the entryway, exhibits elements of the Colonial Revival style of architecture. The home was constructed in 1901-02 by locally prominent builder Charles Jenkins.
History
First National Bank of Bryan
The First National Bank of Bryan traces its history to 1862 when its earliest predecessor, a private lending agency, was established by W.H. Flippen and Milton Parker in Millican. In 1867, after the Houston and Texas Central Railroad extended its line north to the new city of Bryan, Flippen bought out Parker's interest, moved to the new community, and merged his lending operation with that of Guy…
History
Harvey Mitchell
Came to Texas from Tennessee in 1839, and joined "minute men" protecting north frontier from Trinity to Brazos River. Moved to Brazos County; served 1842-1853 in County offices: Deputy Clerk, County Clerk, Surveyor, Chief Justice. Taught school, had a store, farmed. Led in building churches; also Brazos County courthouses of 1846, 1853, 1878.
History
Isom Palmer
Isom Palmer, whose name has various spellings, was born to Martin and Sarah (Hardwick) Parmer. In 1825, the Palmer (Parmer) family moved to Texas, settling near Nacogdoches the next year, and participated in the 1826 Fredonian Rebellion. Palmer fought under Capt. John M. Bradley during the Siege of Bexar in late 1835.
History
James Wilson
(1821-1904) Ireland native James Wilson immigrated to the United States in 1842. He graduated in 1847 from Lafayette College in Boston, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1850, the year he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Wilson was sent to Texas in 1856 as a missionary in Brazos County.
Elsewhere in Texas
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