Three small nineteenth-century Texas Presbyterian schools that failed during the Civil War were united and reopened as a male-only institution and named Trinity University in Tehuacana (
WT53) on September 23, 1869. In 1902 Trinity University was relocated to Waxahachie. The Synod of Texas decided in 1942 to purchase a 117-acre site north of downtown San Antonio. Construction of the coeducational university began here in 1950. O'Neil Ford's long-term association with Trinity began with a series of lift-slab buildings, the first of which, Northrup Hall, has been demolished and replaced by a design of the same name by Robert A. M. Stern (
SA106.1). The campus is located on a former stone quarry that is now completely obscured by the fine landscaping of Arthur and Marie Berger, who transformed the campus with a forest of oak trees and manicured lawns.