In a recent conversation, a friend mentioned a college was to be built in West Dublin at one time. I remember Rich Cowan talking about that too, about 50 years ago. He referred to a high point on Highland Ave. close to his house. While I was scanning through the Dublin Progress in 1909, I came across an opportunity Dublin had, to get a “Normal College” the name they used at the time for a school for the education of public school teachers.
In 1909 the thirty-first Texas Legislature authorized the establishment of a State Normal School to be west of the ninety-eighth meridian. 25 West Texas cities and towns competed to get this coveted institution. Dublin was one of them.
Dublin business men put together a bid for the college that must have included money and land to put the institution on. The August 20, 1909 Dublin Progress stated that the visiting committee from Austin was coming to Dublin to look the town over and see what Dublin’s bonus had to offer. The Dublin Progress asked all towns people to be at the train station to receive the committee and welcome them. The State Location Committee consisted of the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, the Lieutenant Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The committee had already named the school The West Texas State Normal College, a school whose purpose was to prepare students to teach on the elementary and high school levels. Certainly it would have been a positive addition to the community.
The special committee traveled on a train from Cisco and arrived at the Texas Central Station in Dublin where citizens and city leaders greeted them.
(Dublin Progress, August 27, 1909) At a banquet that evening, Dublin teacher Mrs. S. C. Lattimore spoke, stating the advantages that Dublin had. We were an enlightened and eager community wanting to provide what the school and the state needed.
Later, the committee visited Brownwood, Colemen, Ballinger and San Angelo. They finished their work, going to Fort Worth to decide which city would be the best location.
The Sept. 3, 1909 Dublin Progress stated that Canyon City was chosen for the site of the West Texas Normal School. Their bid included $100,100 and 40 acres of land. The choice was made after a long and earnest discussion.
( A brief History of West Texas A&M University, Dr. Peter Petersen) A year later a building was built at Canyon City and the first classes were held. It had 16 faculty and 152 students. It was one of seven state funded teacher’s colleges in Texas. (Wikipedia, West Texas A&M University) Could it be that stories passed down for over 100 years are somewhat true and that college could have been built on the hill in West Dublin?” If true, city leaders at the time hoped to put it on the hill, close to where The First Methodist Church is now.