A Place for the Students -
| News - Life In A Railroad Town |
A Place for the Students
The dust is finally beginning to settle over at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. For the last several months construction has dominated the west side of the university's campus. Destruction has raised clouds of dust on the south side with the removal of several old buildings. The shining conclusion has arrived. New housing for students is complete. The new units have 600 individual bedrooms and corresponding communal living rooms. Workers put the finishing touches on the buildings as students start classes mid August, 2009.
It has to be special to go off to college and stay in a brand new dormitory. Kingsville has always had an eye to education. It was back in 1915 that Kingsville started lobbying Austin to have the “Normal School” built in Kleberg County. It wasn’t until September 17, 1924, that ground was broken for the new college, the South Texas State Normal College as TAMUK was known back then. By December of 1924 it was reported that construction on the building for the South Texas State Teachers College was ahead of schedule.
There was one little problem back in 1925. The class rooms were ready. The President’s home was built. However, there were no dormitories for the students yet. A call went out in the Kingsville Record in late January of 1925 for the citizens of Kingsville to make room in their homes to house the coming students. By May the Commercial Club made it known that housing for the students had become a critical community problem. People did find room for the students. Many rented rooms to students. Some even invited students to stay with them for free. Local businesses were asked to hire students for part time jobs. Basically, Kingsville welcomed the young people into the community. It was the beginning of decades of community participation with the university.
It was reported on May 27, 1925, that the Board of Regents had accepted the buildings with no great celebration. The buildings were ready 15 days before the summer session was scheduled to begin. On June 10th it was reported that college registration passed 200 for the summer session just starting.
Texas A&M University-Kingsville was not always TAMUK. The University started out being known as the “Normal School”, or South Texas State Normal College. Then it became South Texas State Teachers College followed by Texas College of Arts & Industries. In 1968 it became Texas A&I University. Then University System of South Texas followed by today’s Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
There is a little side note to this event of modern construction. One of the local old timers told me that under the buildings that were demolished to make room for the new is an archaeological "treasure" for some future generation to explore, the origional dump for the "Normal School". No one has gone out with toothbrushes and archaeological digging gear yet. While we wait, come visit the 1904 Kingsville Train Depot Museum, no archaeological gear required.