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Location on Campus

Texas Tech Centennial

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About a Significant Location on Campus

Texas Tech's renowned Spanish Renaissance Architecture is something that every student admires and appreciates, and our campus is full of unique spots that that have become favorites over the years. Tell us about a location on campus that has significant meaning to you, and why.

Carl Carter • San Saba, TX • Class of 1964 and 1972

My memories of Tech involve two places. First, my living quarters on campus and, second, a feedlot on campus where I fed steers experimental rations.

In the summer of 1960 I was hired to work with the beef cattle herd. My living quarters was a three bedroom apartment in the building now housing the Texas Tech television station. Six students lived there, each working at some part of the farm; beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, swine or poultry. One guy cooked our meals, remainder washed dishes. He "requisitioned" milk, eggs and meat from each department. We ate well!

In the summer of 1961, I assisted in construction of a 200 head feedlot on campus (where the Ronald Macdonald House is now). Another student and I fed the steers at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. seven days per week until they gained finish weight. Feed was hauled to the pens in wagons on rubber tires pulled by a horse and a mule. After harnessing a mule for the first time I soon could do it in the dark. No tractors needed, simply cluck to the animal, move up and whoa.

One day after feeding we thought it fun to race the animals to the barn. Two days later we were called to the department office. Prof. Ralph Durham said an elderly retired Dean of Agriculture was out looking at the cattle and observed our race. Thinking it was dangerous to do so, while drinking coffee with the president it was mentioned. The president called the Dean of Agriculture who called the department head who called us. Bottom line: No more races. Many good memories working wit all those guys.

Jeannie Lovett Barrick • Lubbock, TX • Class of 2003 and 2005

The choir room at Texas Tech has housed some of the most important moments of my life:

1.) March 07, 1998, as a high school senior, I met my husband, Clint Barrick, in the choir room when he played the piano for my audition into the School of Music. He says he knew immediately that I was "the one."

2.) September 11, 2001. I will never forget University Choir rehearsal that day as we cried, prayed, and tried to understand the horror of that day. Later that evening, while in The Lubbock Chorale, we watched President Bush's address to the nation together as a group.

3.) February 01, 2003. The space shuttle Columbia exploded while at a choir retreat. This was significant because Commander Rick Husband was an alumnus of the University Choir and had taken the choir's recording into space with him. He emailed our director, Dr. John Dickson, from space a few days before the shuttle exploded saying that he was exercising in space to the sounds of the choir. A few days later, we sang for the Columbia memorial in Allen Theatre.

4.) March 12, 2020. As a faculty member, I was in a University Choir rehearsal on the day we learned that campus would be shut down indefinitely for the COVID-19 pandemic. I remember the shock and confusion in the room as we came to terms that the semester ahead was being stripped from us amid unprecedented uncertainty of if or when we'd be back to school that spring.

The Texas Tech choir room has been home for many important days, relationships, and musical opportunities and is easily one of the most significant locations in my life.

David Murrah • Rockport, TX • Class of 1979

Encountering the Dairy Barn:

One of my favorite memories on the Tech campus was an encounter with the Dairy Barn! In 1970, I was teaching in Morton, Texas, but that summer was on campus working on an MA degree in history. One of my courses was Spanish, which required me to find the Foreign Language Building. I will never forget as I rounded a corner, the Dairy Barn came into view, and I stopped suddenly, so surprised-not because I had never seen it before-but because of its location-behind the Library and in the middle of campus!

You see, when I was in high school at Gruver, Texas, in 1959--only eleven years before that 1970 encounter--I was on the dairy judging team, and we came to Lubbock for the regional contest, which was staged in pens just back of the Dairy Barn. It was a memorable day. I recall finishing in second place, quite an accomplishment for a kid who rarely ever saw a live dairy cow! The image of that event and the old Dairy Barn located on the west side of the campus remained a fond memory.

So, when I encountered the Dairy Barn again in 1970, my first thought was, "Why in the world did they move that old building to the center of the campus?" And, then I realized the building had never moved-it was the campus that had moved; it had grown so rapidly in those eleven years that the Dairy Barn was now almost in the center.

I think that encounter helped give me a passion for the Dairy Barn. After getting an MA, I became an archivist on the staff of the Southwest Collection and became its director in 1977. There I became acquainted with Lubbock farmer and former dairy owner Arch Lamb who insisted that the Dairy Barn be preserved. We did what we could to promote its rich history relative to the campus, and had the privilege of giving a speech at the dedication of one of its historical markers.

I really appreciate those in the University administration who helped keep the Dairy Barn on life support until such a time it could be fully renovated and put to good use as it is now. Thanks very much to the late Arch Lamb and all those who followed to work toward its preservation-a century in the making.

Jody Sneed • Midland, TX • Class of 1984

I transferred to Tech in the spring of 1980, halfway through my freshman year.

Guessing someone in the housing office got a giggle out of assigning me to Sneed Hall (Tech is the only place in the universe where the name is recognized, other than a haunted mansion in Austin but that's another story).

Pretty soon the story was the place was named after my grandfather and my dad and I stayed there out of tradition - complete malarkey but more than a few coeds believed me.

At least until September 1980 - I introduced myself to a cute blond at Weeks Hall (she lived next door to my roommate's girlfriend). Her response: I know that's where you live but I don't believe that's your name.

Finally had to show her my driver's license.

We've been married 41 years...and both sons graduated from Tech as well!

Joseph Gregory Boyd • Dallas, TX • Class of 1976

My dad, Joseph Y. Boyd was also a Tech grad. His mother was a sister of Emma Boone Bledsoe, wife of William H. Bledsoe (Bledsoe Hall), who authored the Senate Bill No. 103 which created Texas Technological College in 1923. His home at 1812 Broadway still stands. A historical marker sits outside. Seems that we don't hear much about the unique circumstances in which Tech came to be.

Ken Hargesheimer • Lubbock, TX • Class of 1957

I graduated in 1957 with a BS in dairy husbandry. The last three years I lived in one of the "feed rooms" in the dairy barn with 10 other students. We milked the cows 3 times a day. Rotated the cooking/clean up. Rotated the summers.

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