I recently came across some interesting factoids concerning Austin history. Having gone to UT in the 80's and 90's I have heard "university of the first class" bandied about a time or two and always believed it to be some well thought up modern advertising construct. No, that phrase was first uttered as far back as 1839 as the Republic of Texas set aside 40 acres north of Austin for such a university. A little further into the wiki, I came a cross what was put out there as perhaps the first serial killer in American history. I would have thought "Servant Girl Annihilator" would be the name of a Robert Rodríguez movie. But no, way back even in the 1880's, Texans, namely O. Henry, seem to have already had a grasp on how best to label terror and horror, even if Jack the Ripper seems to have enjoyed more widespread currency. Imagine Star Trek spending an episode where Kirk and Spock go over the Redjac Entity's murders in 1880's Austin Texas under the alias of the Servant Girl Annihilator. Oh, there are other things to mention involving dams, floods, armadillos and weirdness, but these two struck me as most interesting at this my latest reflection on Austin's history.
You are absolutely correct. The Texas Constitution provided for the establishment of a university of the first class styled The University of Texas. The 40 acres was set aside on a rise just north of downtown and dubbed "college hill". It wasn't until 1881-82 though that enough money was raised to construct a building. You should look up images of that first building (the west wing of what would become Old Main). It's a pretty humble beginning...a lonely little building on a barren hill.
Yeah, I saw that indeed there is or was a band or two with that name. I haven't looked any further into what my Google search returned.
Have you learned about the Texas Military Institute or the Bastrop Military Institute that evenutally led to Texas AM? I learned about it during Speck's architecture 101 class, great class did you ever take that class? It goes into great detail about the creation and design of Austin.
Check out "A Twist at the End" by Austin's own Steven Saylor. It pays homage to O. Henry as well as the "Servant Girl Annihilators"... Great read...
