Established in 1926 as part of the Tyler public school system, the college became independent in 1946. A new campus southeast of the city was planned by Shirley Simons, with Jenkins Hall (1949) as the centerpiece facing a broad lawn south to E. 5th Street. The classic quadrangle to the north, defined by buildings along its east and west flanks, was obscured by the later placement of the library building in the center of its proposed length.
Jenkins Hall established a red brick palette for the campus, but its Georgian inferences are mannered by Simons’s personal touch. Two gabled and pedimented facades, each with semicircular porticos and a triplet of round windows, stand to each side of a long enclosed arcade with first-floor arches and a continuous bank of second-floor windows. The composition is monumental to be in scale with the lawn, but the details are too thin to carry visually over such a distance.
For the Wagstaff Gymnasium (1964, E. Davis Wilcox Associates), Tyler architect Dave Wilcox designed a long folded-plate roof structure to create a column-free span over the gymnasium floor and bleachers. The post-and-beam frame supporting the roof is exposed and painted white with brick infill panels to nod to the campus palette.
The Tyler Museum of Art (1971, E. Davis Wilcox Associates) is composed of a series of brick boxes set into a depression and linked at the roof with a continuous white fascia. It is approached by floating white concrete ramps and bridges.