Waxahachie Campus

In 1902, Trinity moved from its humble Tehuacana home to the larger town of Waxahachie.

Waxahachie, 7,500 strong, was the seat of Ellis County, Texas, and opened up a world of new connections for the growing university. Here, the University officially affiliated with the national Presbyterian Church, which came with access to new fundraising and networking possibilities. Trinity’s leadership managed to navigate the schisms and internal politics of this denominational shift to secure greater levels of funding.

Trinity moved its campus through the streets of Waxahachie, announcing their arrival to the community.

But just as Trinity’s path ahead seemed smooth, disaster struck with the stock market crash of 1929. Enrollment declined sharply, faculty began considering other career prospects, and trustees began using the endowment just to keep the school doors open day-to-day.

The Waxahachie Campus weathered a series of highs and lows: the emergence of spirited sports like football, tempered by the vices of the “Roaring Twenties” (top right), and a brutal reign of corporal punishment (“bottom” right).

At a time when other schools began financially “turtling up,” Trinity instead took on bigger risk: diving headlong into improving facilities, expanding student organizations and even athletics. This gambit paid off, as student and faculty life began to flourish. And as earlier Victorian-era practices of separating students by genders and doctrine diminished, a greater part of the student body commingled, and the idea of a truly collegial “Trinity Spirit” continued to emerge.

Throughout the Waxahachie era, intercollegiate athletics played a primary role in fostering school spirit. Although baseball, basketball, track, and tennis attracted student interest, football was the premier sport, as it was on many college campuses. While only a recreational sport in Tehuacana, football assumed increasing significance in Waxahachie, a town filled
with sports-minded enthusiasts who wanted winning teams.

This spirit extended into the alumni world, as well. After the move from Tehuacana to Waxahachie, Trinity alumni had organized the Association of Former Students at a meeting held in Dallas in 1904. This organization would start holding reunions each year during commencement week, with members also serving as ambassadors for Trinity University in their workplaces and communities.

Trinity also took steps to create greater diversity in the studies available: Trinity now offered math, astronomy, English, Greek, and Latin, chemistry, physics, biology, geology, history, modern language, Bible study and philosophy, as well as a burgeoning education department for training teachers.

Most Trinity students responded positively to these moves, reporting favorable experiences during their college years on the Waxahachie campus. Testimonies from alumni confirm their appreciation of a dedicated faculty and a sense of community that characterized their college experience. A graduate who later received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Texas A&M said, "One of the most valuable factors in the training that I received at Trinity University was the personal contact and association with a faculty composed of the highest type of Christian men and women. Such a faculty as Trinity's is not found in institutions in which scholarship is considered the sole element in education." Another student expressed a sentiment that many Trinitonians felt toward their alma mater. Reminiscing about his years on the Waxahachie campus, he recalled the names of faculty and staff whom he termed "caring men and women." Without their support, he concluded, "I don't think I could have made it through the university.”

Despite this sentiment, the Great Depression still dealt Trinity a severe blow in terms of attracting consistent enrollment in Waxahachie. If the school wanted to truly reach its vision of solving the world’s problems—rather than facing a struggle to survive every odd decade—it would need to move to a city on the worldwide stage.