The Way Back: Room with a View

By Chris O'Connell in Sept | Oct 2021, The Way Back on September 1, 2021 at 8:24 am | No Comments

Since 1937, the UT Tower has watched over an ever-changing campus and the city it calls home. Through wars, civil rights protests, a tragic mass shooting, and most recently, a global pandemic, the 307-foot building has been a silent monolith—well, except for the carillon—as everything around it continually transforms. And that’s kind of the point. 

This undated shot from the interior of the Tower and looking out beyond campus to Downtown Austin, shows a Forty Acres, and a city, that no longer exists. Development, on campus and off, has rendered this sepia-toned snapshot a portal into another world. For better or worse, it’s the reason the Tower means so much to so many people. Students leave campus behind for the rest of the world; but the structure remains as it was, as it is, and as it always shall be.  

Credit: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History