Huston-Tillotson University Campus Tour

Huston-Tillotson sits on a rise in East Austin, on ground that has been a campus for African American students since the 1880s. The university grew out of two schools, Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College, which joined forces in 1952. In 2022 the campus itself was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. This short loop takes in the early stone and concrete-block halls, the mid-century modernist buildings of the post-merger years, and the chapel that anchors the grounds.

Huston-Tillotson is one of Austin's oldest institutions, and its hilltop campus east of downtown is now a National Register historic district, listed in 2022. The university's roots reach back to 1875, when the Rev. George J. Tillotson, with support from the American Missionary Association, set out to prepare Black teachers in a state where few schools would. Tillotson College later combined with Samuel Huston College in 1952, and the campus still shows both eras.

The oldest layer is striking up close. Evans Industrial Hall, from 1911, has rough stone walls that students helped build while learning trades. At Viaer Alumni Hall, completed in 1914, the concrete blocks themselves were made by students as part of their industrial coursework.

The most moving story belongs to the King-Seabrook Chapel and Bell Tower, a 1974 brick landmark that honors, in part, former president John J. Seabrook. A civil rights advocate, he died in 1975 while speaking to the Austin City Council in support of giving Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard a single name citywide. Add a set of clean-lined buildings from the college's post-merger growth, and this compact visit gives you a clear picture of East Austin history and the Black institutions that shaped it.