Vol 120 | Issue 7
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Publishing since 1913
Independent Student Newspaper of Sam Houston State University
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Staff Grammy predictions, pg. 4
INDEX Viewpoints ....... pg. 2 A&E ................... pg. 4 News .................. pg. 3 Sports................. pg. 5
Looking back: 30 years later Witnesses remember night of fire that burned Old Main
STEPHEN GREEN Editor-in-Chief On one cold night David Clements was walking back to his dorm when he saw smoke billowing out of a historic campus building. Old Main was on fire. The freshman called the fire department to report what he saw. Firefighters from surrounding cities had to be called in because of limited staff at the Huntsville station. The wood and brick framed building had already been engulfed in flame for 20 min. It was too late to save. Thirty years ago, on Feb. 12, 1982, Old Main fell for good. “I could see the fire from Fish Hatchery Road,” Huntsville Fire Chief Tom Grisham said. “I could see the glow in the sky. It was well on its way before we even got there.” That didn’t stop the firefighters, many of whom were volunteers, from risking their health and sanity in the long hours that the fire burned. “We were probably there close to 17 hours,” Grisham, then one of only two paid firefighters, said. “We had to get people from the city to bring us gas to refill the trucks.” The longer the building was engulfed, the more students, faculty and citizens of the town gathered around to watch their beloved building slowly fall apart.
“I remember my dad brought us there when it was still smoldering,” LeeAn Muns, who was in third grade at the time, said. “Although, I remember that all I kept asking my mom and dad was, ‘Is Tripod’s grave still standing?’” Muns, now the mass communication department broadcast operations manager, said as a seven-year-old Tripod was her main concern. “When I got home that night, I remember my parents talking about how much of a loss it was… that all that beautiful stain glass was gone,” Muns said. “Tripod was still my main concern, even in the shadow of the loss of the historic building…the history of that dog still stood strong.” Tripod was a three-legged dog that roamed the campus of SHSU that the community looked after. He died on Jan. 9, 1962 and the president of the university at that time, Harmon Lowman, Ph.D., gave his eulogy three days later. His grave is located at the bottom of the hill Old Main rested on. When the walls of Old Main fell, the bricks fell around the grave, not even touching the headstone. However, the 93 year-old wall that fell still made an impact. “I remember one of the Old Main walls falling,” Grisham said. “It was like thunder, firefighters were running everywhere.” Austin Hall, the historic landmark built in 1851 that sat adjacent to Old Main, also caught fire, however, officials were able to contain it before the problem was too severe. “We were most proud of saving that building,” Grisham said. “We knew that if Old Main got as involved as it did we’d have to protect Austin Hall. That was our priority.” By morning all that was left of the largest building on campus was piles of brick, shards and melted fragments of stain glass, and pieces of the structure remained.
Video from that day show students holding each other crying, while other students were gathering pieces of the building. “It was like an old friend,” a student said in a news report that day. “When you couldn’t find anybody to talk to, [you would go sit] on the steps of old main. We would slide down the hill in the snow. We were all just here the other day with my kids and everybody just going down the hill. We’re really [going to] miss it.” Elliot Bowers, Ph.D., then SHSU president, said echoed the student’s feelings. “I think it’s the saddest thing that’s happened on this campus since I’ve been here, and that’s been several decades,” Bowers said. “It was priceless, and irreplaceable.” Grisham said he and the other firefighters may have felt worse Photo courtesy University Archives. than the students. “Many of the firefighters went EYE OF THE FIRE. Firefighters could be seen standing stunned staring at the to Sam,” Grisham said. “We were flames as it overpowered the more than 100 firefighters from 17 cities. some of the saddest people there, because we were supposed to be STA I N E D the ones to save it, and we didn’t.” W I N D OWS . University officials said that Many artifacts before the fire brought the in the fire that building down, students formed destroyed lines inside the building to remove the Old Main buildingwere artifacts from the university’s irreplac able, history including instruments, but the photos, paintings, and a bust windows that of Gen. Sam Houston. Most of represented the artifacts lie in storage today, the history of according to university officials, not only Texas, but larger pieces like the Old Main but SHSU... organ are in the Peabody library. were the most Before it burned down, the memorable. building was used for music, They included this window of journalism and lecture classes. the university In the end, the ultimate irony motto, as well was Bower’s announcement that as, it’s alma members of the university were matter. going to Austin the following week to attempt to declare the building a historical landmark, which would Photo courtesy University Archives. have secured funding to help restore parts of the building. the “Old Main pit.” socialize, even if they don’t know Now where once smoldering Just as before when the the history of the grounds they bricks, shattered glass and a university and surrounding stand on, they now gather in its mourning community stood, a community stood on the steps shadow, in a haunting reminder small memorial statue stands in of the Old Main building to of that cold, February night.
Photo courtesy University Archives, Jessica Gomez | The Houstonian
THEN AND NOW. The hill that once looked on Old Main has had some renovation, including adding in new lamp posts. However, many of the trees that surrounded the building still stand and went largely untouched by the fire. On the of the fire, water from the fire trucks flowed down the staircase which was later aptly named the “Old Main waterfall” by many who saw it.
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