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Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » Central Texas » Waco to Tehuacana » Waco and Vicinity (Mclennan County) » Old Main

Old Main

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1886, Larmour and Herbert

Stylistic terms can barely describe the eclectic exuberance of Old Main, a symmetrical, three-story red brick building with contrasting stone stringcourses and shawl lintels over segmental-arched windows. The advancing central tower has a steep, metal-shingled mansard roof rising from bracketed cornices that is capped by a columned belfry with its own steep roof. Corner towers have false dormers positioned halfway up their similar steeply pitched roofs. The central tower was weakened in a tornado in 1953 and removed, then reconstructed in 1973. Adjacent Georgia Burleson Hall, begun shortly after Old Main, is a near twin, the two buildings together defining the original quadrangle of the campus by lining up shoulder to shoulder, rather than facing each other.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Baylor University
Pat Neff Hall
Armstrong Browning Library
Baylor Sciences Building
Earle-Napier-Kinnard House

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Old Main", [Waco, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-WT17.2.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 126-126.

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