SFA Story: The History of Stephen F. Austin State University

Years of Uncertainties: 1917-23

The original building on the SFA campus

Former Regent, Senator Roy Blake contributes picture

Hall House
Hall House

Former SFA Regent Roy Blake, was the first person to step forward after the August 9 call for pictures. His picture is of one of the original SFA buildings. One of the tracts of land purchased for the campus belonged to Senator Blake's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Hall. On the Hall tract was a frame house, shown in photo; in another Blake photograph, dated 1908, his grandparents and their whole family are shown on the front steps of the house.

While President Birdwell at first lived off campus in 1922-23, the Hall's frame house existed on the campus property and so Birdwell asked if the house could be remodeled to serve as a home for the Birdwells. Birdwell was "authorized to proceed with the remodeling of the frame house" in the summer of 1923, but the governor vetoed the funds at first. Eventually, the Birdwells did remodel the house: the front porch was replaced by a federal-style doorway, the windows were grouped into a more modern configuration, the dormers were taken out of the roof, and the side porch was closed in to make a small morning room. It became SFA's first presidential home. Birdwell called the house "indifferent but comfortable;" the Boynton's at first remodeled the house again and later replaced it with the present colonial structure. The Hall-Birdwell-Boynton House is now a bed and breakfast inn on Shawnee Street in south Nacogdoches.

For a full discussion of the property, see The Campus.