A Texas historical marker was unveiled Friday at the site of ACU’s original campus.
The ceremony was attended by the 10th and 11th presidents of ACU as well as several members of the Taylor County Historical Commision. The event took place at 2074 N. First St., the original campus of ACU and current home of Global Samaritan Resources. The inscription on the marker gives a brief history of the university and its founding. The marker is official property of the state of Texas.
Anita Lane, Taylor County Historical Commisions chair, attended the ceremony and helped unveil the new marker.
“We worked with the ACU public relations, some alumni, just people from ACU that joined us on that morning to put up a marker to show where the first site of ACU was,” she said.
As chair for the Taylor County Historical Commision, Lane played an important role in getting the marker for the former school.
“The markers have to be approved by the state and, as chair, it was my responsibility to see that they had all the information and that it met the criteria for a historical marker,” she said.
Lane said that the importance of the new marker is to remind everyone of the past and history of the university.
On Sept. 11, 1906, the school that would eventually become Abilene Christian University was opened as Childers Classical Institute. The school became known as Abilene Christian College in 1912 and was moved to its current campus in 1929. In 1976 the name was changed to Abilene Christian Univeristy.
Bruce Campbell, accounting executive for KXVA TV in Abilene and an ACU alumnus, also took part in unveiling the marker.
“I was the one that had the initial idea to place a marker there,” he said.
Campell said that his background with the school and his additional interaction with Global Samaritan Resources influenced him to suggest making the building a historical site. He began attending Abilene Christian Schools when he was in first grade and continued attending, for the most part, through high school and college. Campbell’s father attended and later taught at ACU. His six siblings also attended the university. Campell said he was “literally raised on the campus of Abilene Christian.” He said he believes recognizing historical locations is beneficial to the community.
“Historical locations give us a perspective of the past, which is important to our broader understanding of what brought us here,” he said.
