It took twelve years for Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College to provide student housing on campus - and then it was for men only. Prior to 1936, out-of-town students lived in private boarding houses scattered around Nacogdoches.

In July, 1923, only two months before the opening of classes, SFA President A.W. Birdwell used the pages of the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel to appeal for people with rent houses, apartments, or even rooms in their homes to make these available to incoming students. The Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce also helped gather a list for Birdwell to give to the many anticipated students.

"The time has come when the problem of caring for college students must be solved," said the Sentinel. Birdwell made a special appeal for citizen cooperation in his "Important Notice" on July 3 (quoted elsewhere in this issue.) "Already prospective students and parents are asking for a list of approved boarding houses. There are also numerous inquiries for apartments, light house keeping facilities, and rent cottages. The time has come when definite information must be given to students and to families who want to come to Nacogdoches for the benefits of the public shcools and of the college. . . I am asking, therefore, for the names of those who have boarding facilities to offer. Communications should be sent in writing to me or the Chamber of Commerce. . . .We will lose tremendously if very definite information cannot be given about caring for the students who want to come to us. . . .A. W. Birdwell."

The first semester's enrollment reached 345; there were no reported problems finding places for the students to live, the newspaper reported. Some of the students had jobs to work off part of their residence fee. In addition to housing, Birdwell had appealed for student employment:

"Do you want a boy or girl around the place, keep the lawn or the car, milk the cow? Or do you need a girl to help keep the house, wait on the table, etc.?" Anyone who did was urged to let the president know.

By the early 1930s, The Pine Log carried photographs of six men's boarding houses; the writer in the school paper called these "the most popular." All were two-story and at least four were brick, Birdwell's oft-repeated personal choice for his student's accommodations. In letters, civic club speeches, and his regular Sentinel column, he often appealed for boarding houses that were "modern, commodious and fireproof."

In 1936, Wisely Hall was opened. It housed 70 men - though at the time they were called "boys." It took two more years for funds to be secured to build the 148-person Gibbs Hall for women. J. Harold Wisely was SFA's first professor of business administration and the campus auditor. Eleanor H. Gibbs was the first art teacher on campus.