The Pine Log in July of 1949 published an interesting document entitled “SFA’s Campus of Tomorrow.” The article included a map, too poor to reproduce from microfilm and non existent in the archives, which must be redrawn before it can be published. Under the map, there was a listing of the buildings and a grand campus design called the “Master Plan.” The 1949 article, plus bits and pieces from other newspaper articles are all that can be located of the Boynton master plan for the campus. The plans show, however, a comprehensive scheme for campus development which is innovative and progressive.

Each building on the map was numbered. The list started with the existing buildings: (1) Stephen F. Austin Building, or Main, (2) Thomas J. Rusk, (3) Science, (4) Wisely Hall, (5) Women’s Recreational Center, (6) the present agriculture lecture building, (7) The Old Stone Fort, (8) the new Boy’s Dorm [Ferguson Hall], (9) the New Student Union Building [SUB], (10) Gibbs Hall, (11) Swimming Pool and bath house, (12) Memorial Stadium, (13) President Boynton’s home, (14) Home Management House, (15) Forestry, (16) Music, (17) Maintenance warehouse. The plan also noted an omission: “Note: There is a building slightly behind and to the left of Wisely Hall that is not numbered. It is the Business Administration Building.” The buildings listed from 1-17 were the old or recently added buildings to the campus; for instance, the Forestry, Music, and Business buildings referred to were the temporary buildings, recently veneered with brick, erected after the war.

The rest of the numbers on the “Master Plan” were proposed additions to the campus. To quote the article: “(18) Fine Arts Building, including space for music, art and an Auditorium, (19) power plant, (20) and (21) Men’s Residential quarters, (22) Men’s Dorm, (23) Library, (24) Teaching building, (25) both these buildings are to be Women’s Dormitories with a semi-private patio connecting them, (26) Women’s Dorm, (27) Chapel, (28) Amphitheater, (29) Vocational Arts, (30) Agriculture building, (31) new Gymnasium-there is a tentative site for the building. It might not be built there at all, (32) proposed new driveway.”

The Boynton Master Plan was a blueprint of where the President wanted to go in the next decade. He made many modifications along the way, primarily because of a lack of funds, but the plan was complete. It included, interestingly enough, a chapel and an Amphitheater to be located just south of the present University Center and across the street from the Stone Fort Museum. A beautifully curved drive intersected by addition walkways perpendicular to the Vista, would have connected with an extension between Griffith Boulevard and Starr Avenue east of Griffith Park.

When money from the constitutional amendment became available, Dr. Boynton list of priorities started with a power house and then an auditorium and fine arts building. The Board of Regents gave their immediate approval for the new $75,000 powerhouse in March of 1949. Joe Lacy, Business Manager, and Dr. D. D. Giles, Dean of the Junior Division, had to present Boynton’s case; the President’s father had just died. Boynton then signed architectural contracts in October of 1949 for the auditorium and fine arts building (at the time scheduled to be named for Dr. A. W. Birdwell), a dormitory for upper class women, and a physical education building, including a new gymnasium for men. Most of the plans in this period of SFA’s history were the work of Architect Shirley Simons of Tyler.

The dormitory project proceeded as did the work on the gymnasium, but the funds for the fine arts building were insufficient. The New Gym [not named for Coach Bob Shelton until the 1960s] opened in 1951. The bids for the construction of the new classroom building were called for in April of 1954 by architect Shirley Simons of Tyler. The building, named for Dr. Birdwell and discussed elsewhere, was opened in 1955. The Regents also gave Boynton the approval to proceed with the new library building along the Campus Drive with construction scheduled to start in the summer of 1955. Work was also under way on a new apartment house development that included permanent-type brick veneer apartment houses on Raguet street. In 1955, air-conditioning was being installed in all of the classrooms at SFA.

By 1956, construction on the campus was at an all-time high. The new half-million dollar library was rising out of its foundation, family apartments (financed out of bank loans) were taking shape on Wilson Drive, and men’s living quarters along North Raguet Street to the west of Birdwell Field were being built by the college’s own construction crews under the direction of Paul S. Wilson, director of maintenance.

The crowing piece of the Boynton building program–the fine arts building and auditorium–however, kept alluding the President. “It was his sixteen year dream,” Mrs. Boynton said later; “We needed it so badly.” Since the state would not appropriate funds for such a building very often, Boynton had to keep putting the building off until he could use the constitutionally available funds. The plans were drawn and redrawn, but each time when construction became a possibility, the bids came in too high and Boynton had to start over again. According to his wife, the President “everywhere” inspecting similar buildings and chose the various element of the building complex himself. On May 21, 1958, the Regents approved the Fine Arts Plans for the final time, architect Shirley Simons approved the bid by Temple Associates of Diboll, a sculptural designer was commissioned for the art work, and the ground was broken.

Dr. Boynton himself wrote the article which appeared in The Daily Sentinel on July 8, 1958. “Naturally, the thing of which we are thinking most at the present time is the new Auditorium-Fine Arts building for which we have just recently received bids. ... This building will house a main auditorium seating slightly in excess of 1,800 people, and, a small auditorium seating approximately 200 people. These two auditoriums' stages will be back-to back, and consequently, can be opened together if we so desire. In addition, the department of Music, Speech, and Art will have quarters in the building. ... The building not only will be functional, however, but also beautiful, and possessed of certain definite qualitative features that will add greatly to its value. Among these features we might mention that it will house a lovely pipe organ, and a carillon, and a special room for art exhibits. The building will be about 125 feet south of the Birdwell building, and will parallel North Street and the front campus drive. This will result in a fan shaped auditorium which is supposed to be peculiarly well adapted to give the best acoustical effects.”

Paul Boyntondied one month after writing this article. Mrs. Boynton said later: “Because he had planned every brick in i .... the pipe organ and all.... I always, of course, feel that it is his building, and I had so hoped that would be the one to bare his name. It wasn't and I was so sorry because that was the appropriate one. He would have lovedthe way it has given so much pleasure to so many people."