The history of the University of Texas at Arlington began with the foundation of Arlington College in 1895, which was the first of a series of private schools to exist on the site of the present university. It consisted of first through tenth grades and enrolled between 75 and 150 students on a campus that consisted initially of only a two-story schoolhouse. It was created largely due to the underfunded and generally inadequate public schools in the city. Arlington College closed in July 1902, after Arlington voters passed a proposition to create an independent school district.
Carlisle Military Academy was established on the same site by Colonel James M. Carlisle in 1902. Although nominally a school for boys, it also accepted a handful of female students. Its enrollment grew from 48 students in 1902 to 150 students by 1905. Pupils were between the ages of 10 and 18. The school was molded by Carlisle's educational philosophy, which balanced intellectualism with military training to instill discipline in students and prepare them for enrollment in elite colleges. In 1907, United States Army lieutenant Harry King visited the school and became convinced it was one of the best institutions of its kind in the country. Carlisle's financial problems resulted in the school entering receivership in 1911, and in 1913 the school closed.
Later in 1913, Arlington Training School was founded by H. K. Taylor. Like its immediate predecessor, it focused on offering a preparatory military school education for male students, although it also accepted female students. Its enrollment grew from 32 students on its opening day to 93 students in its final academic year, 1915–16. Graduates of its secondary unit met the University of Texas at Austin's entrance requirements. The school was beset by financial troubles and lawsuits in the spring of 1916. Taylor left Arlington after the end of the 1915–16 academic year and Arlington Training School closed.
In 1916, Arlington Military Academy was founded by John B. Dodson, and it lasted for only one academic year. It would be the last attempt by the citizens of Arlington to support a private intermediate and secondary school. Like its predecessors, the school attempted to balance intellectualism with military exercises, instill discipline into its students, and prepare them for attending a university or a career in business. However, its enrollment figures were disappointing, resulting in little community support for the school. In January 1917, Arlington leaders met to organize an effort to convince the Texas Legislature to grant the community a junior college in place of a military academy. Despite their failures, between 1895 and 1917 these four private schools collectively educated hundreds of children in Arlington.
Arlington College (1895–1902)
Arlington College was founded in September 1895 by Lee M. Hammond and William M. Trimble. At the time, Arlington was a small rural North Texas town with a population of about 1,000 people. Its public schools were underfunded and generally inadequate, an important problem given the median age in Arlington was 20 and a third of its residents were under age 10. Arlington College was the first of a series of private schools to exist on the site of the present University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). From the beginning it was championed by civic booster Emmett Rankin, a native of Tennessee who moved to Arlington in 1874 and established the Rankin Hardware Company. He hoped to raise the standard of education in the then-rural town. A private school, Arlington College consisted of first through tenth grades.
The school charged tuition that ranged between $1.50 and $3.50 per month per student. It had a faculty of six teachers and taught subjects ranging from algebra, grammar, and Latin to art, elocution, and penmanship. In 1895–96, the school's inaugural year, it had about 75 students, which grew to approximately 120 in 1896–97 and 150 in 1897–98. It held its first commencement in May 1898, which graduated only two students at the high school level. In May 1900, four students graduated.
Arlington College's original wood-frame schoolhouse stood near the location of the University Center on the UTA campus today, on land donated by James Ditto and A. W. Collins that was at the time southwest of Arlington. Built at a cost of $5,000, the two-story schoolhouse lacked indoor plumbing but contained six classrooms and an assembly room. Rankin convinced Lee Morgan Hammond and William M. Trimble, the two co-principals of the Arlington Public School, to start Arlington College and invest $500 each in it. Hammond had been born in Alabama in 1869 and Trimble had been born in Tarrant County, Texas, in 1868. Both were educated at Bedford College and Sam Houston Normal Institute before they arrived in Arlington to become co-principals of the Arlington Public School in 1894.
During the 1896–97 academic year, Arlington College agreed to provide places for public school students for a duration of five months in exchange for receiving two-thirds of Arlington's public education funding, an agreement that lasted until 1900. Perhaps because of the unsatisfactory nature of this agreement, Trimble sold his interest in Arlington College in 1898 and Hammond did likewise in 1900. That year, the Arlington College Corporation was established to run the school, with newly appointed president W. W. Franklin of Dallas. The new corporation and its trustees sold stock in an effort to prevent the closure of the school. In July 1900, Arlington College filed a charter for $4,000 in capital stock. In 1901, its faculty consisted of four teachers. In the summer of that year, the school's trustees declared Arlington College's building to be "unsafe and wholly unfit" before a proposition to transfer the school's administration from the trustees to the city was defeated by Arlington voters.
In August 1901, the college and the city came to an agreement by which the public school would rent the Arlington College building for $350, while the college retained just one room and one teacher. Throughout the 1901–02 academic year, the local newspaper, The Arlington Journal, pressured for school reform and the creation of an independent school district that would have the means to construct a new brick building. In April 1902, Arlington voters passed a proposition to create an independent school district by a margin of three-to-one, while later that spring they also approved a $12,000 bond issue to fund school construction. The school district officially became the Arlington Independent School District with legislative validation a year later. Arlington College officially closed on July 3, 1902, when the corporation deeded its property. At the same time, it was announced that James M. Carlisle had agreed to establish a military academy on the grounds of the college in fall 1902.
Also in 1902, Arlington Journal editor William A. Bowen began a campaign to create a junior college in Arlington as a branch campus of Texas A&M College. He continued this effort for 15 years until such a college was established in the city. Bowen's ideas were supported by editorials in the Dallas Times Herald, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Houston Post. While some called for a simple expansion of the campus in College Station to accommodate A&M's growth, ultimately branch campuses around Texas were established in addition to an enlarged College Station campus.
Military training schools (1902–1917) Carlisle Military Academy (1902–1913)
Carlisle Military Academy was established by Colonel James M. Carlisle in September 1902. Carlisle was born in Coffee County, Tennessee, and was educated at Beech Grove College in Tennessee; Emory College in Oxford, Georgia; and the University of Nashville. When he arrived in Arlington in 1902, he had a reputation as a prominent educator. By that point, he had already served as state superintendent of public instruction, the president of the Texas State Teachers Association, the superintendent of public schools in three different cities (Corsicana, Fort Worth, and Whitesboro), and had founded private schools in both Hillsboro and Whitesboro. Before he opened a new school in Arlington, Carlisle received a tentative deed for the school's land and a promise by the town's citizens to build a dormitory on that land.
Carlisle's new school, a private military academy, opened on September 16, 1902. It was initially known as Carlisle's School for Boys despite the fact that it accepted girls as well. After being incorporated in fall 1903 as Carlisle Military Academy, it secured a charter from the State of Texas that declaring it to be "for the literary, military, and manual training of boys". However, the charter also expressly allowed Carlisle to enroll "a limited number of girls". The dormitory promised by Arlingtonians was known officially as Arlington Hall but commonly as the South Barracks. It housed 30 students, a dining hall, and the superintendent's residence on a site where UTA's Preston Hall would later be built. Carlisle himself served as the school's superintendent, while his wife Julia, his daughter Mary, and Rev. W. B. Fitzhugh served as its three directors. Both Julia and Mary Carlisle also taught classes. The school maintained at least four full-time teachers on staff throughout its history, although most individual teachers left the school after only a year or two on staff.
On opening day in September 1902, 48 students were enrolled in Carlisle Military Academy, and by the end of the academic year in May 1903, that number had grown to 71. Nearly two thirds of students were local, either living at home or with relatives in Arlington while they attended the school. Most of the other students were from Central Texas and North Texas. In the spring of 1904, the school had 97 students, and in spring 1905, it had 150. The school graduated two students at its first commencement ceremony in May 1904, its lowest-ever number of graduates. Its highest number of graduates was 11, in 1909. In September 1905, due in part to the school's struggles to handle increases in enrollment, it stopped accepting female students and reduced its advertising. As a result, two former teachers, Mary Carlisle and Maggie Smith, established a separate Carlisle-Smith School for Girls in 1904. This school taught girls in first through tenth grades in Arlington, although it only lasted for two years.
Carlisle Military Academy was guided by Carlisle's educational philosophy, which balanced intellectualism with military training to instill discipline in students and prepare them for enrollment in elite colleges. The school accepted students between the ages of 10 and 18, and had grades that were roughly equivalent to fifth through tenth grades. The first two years of study were considered preparatory, and the latter four years roughly equivalent to high school. The curriculum was composed of both required courses such as English, geography, and mathematics as well as electives such as Latin, modern languages, and shorthand. Classes in military science were also offered, while military drill for all male students occurred on a daily basis. Students were additionally required to wear their cadet uniforms at all times. Tuition at Carlisle Military Academy was initially $245, but later increased to $300, while uniforms cost $30.05. An application fee of $25 was instituted in fall 1906. Carlisle required parents to give the school "complete authority" over their children while they attended, while also prohibiting tobacco and advertising Arlington as a "Christian community" without saloons.