Battle Hall
a.k.a. Old Barker History Center
South Mall, University of Texas campus, Austin, TXOn December 11, 1909, the Board of Regents of the University of Texas appropriated $211,000 to construct and furnish a library building. They decided that there was no architect in Austin equal to the task, and so they chose Cass Gilbert of New York City. Gilbert received his training at M.I.T., and he designed such well-known buildings as the State Capitol of Minnesota, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Woolworth Building in New York, and the Supreme Court Building in Washington, B.C. He produced many beautiful works, and his Texas library remains one of the best buildings on the campus.
Gilbert agreed to design the University of Texas library if he could do so with "the utter exclusion from the building of any feature of material or of ornament indigenous or identifiable to Texas . . . ." He must have made a conscious effort to reflect the Spanish heritage of Texas, however, for the library includes numerous details typical of various Spanish Renaissance buildings. Gilbert's plan, accepted by the Regents January 11, 1910, consisted of two rectangles. The east portion included public reading rooms and a small art gallery; the west included space for book stacks. The library was to have three stories and a basement. A marble staircase and iron balustrade led to the second floor.
The east walls of the building are particularly beautiful. They are faced with limestone and rest on a granite base. Five arched windows let light into the Reading Room. A border of colored terra cotta extends around each window, and each border consists of a rich design of plants and mythological heads. White zodiac signs are emblazoned on blue terra cotta.
The building was completed by 1911. September 21, 1946, the Board of Regents named Gilbert's building in honor of the Texas historian and professor Eugene C. Barker, and they transferred all University books, papers, archives, and letters pertaining to Texas and the Southwest to the Center. April 27, 1950, the University dedicated the Center.
Bibliography
Austin, Library. Austin and Travis County Collection.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.