An aerial photograph of campus shows the houses that dotted the community southeast of the main quadrangle in the area where the Department Dorms would one day be located.
An aerial photograph from the mid-1970s taken before the construction in the central part of campus.
The five dorms and the Lee Drain Building jutted up against each other, as an aerial photo from the late 1980s reveals.
Only these southern buildings still stood in the late 1990s and by the end of that decade all would be gone with Academic Building 4 built in their place.
 
 
buildingshsu
 
Departmental Dorms
 
The Departmental Dorms were a collection of nine separate two-story housing structures located between Avenues I and J, north of Twentieth Street.  The dorms were part of the on-campus housing boom of the late 1950s that included many of the small houses and the nearby Houston and Rix apartments buildings.

Built over ther course of two years and collectively known as “Departmental,” the dorms allowed students majoring in similar disciplines to live, study, and interact more closely with others outside the classroom setting.  Each building was known through a lettering system, as well as having an individual name honoring an educator from that field of study (e.g. biology, agriculture, or business):

  1. Adamson Hall [G]
  2. Brentzel Hall [A]
  3. Cowan Hall [B]
  4. Gates Hall [I]
  5. Longino Hall [C]
  6. Moore Hall [F]
  7. Rupert Hall [D]
  8. Stewart Hall [E]
  9. Woods Hall [H]

A 1977 Houstonian article said that because of the attention the housing complex was receiving at the time, the men living in the dorms felt it should have a more appropriate name. "At present, the Hall Council is planning a contest...to choose a new name. Perhaps when students return in the fall, Departmental Dorms will have a more acceptable name."  It is unknown if anything ever was decided upon, though it seems doubtful.

The four northernmost Departmental Dorms were razed in 1982 in preparation for construction of the General Purpose Classroom Building.  In subsequent years it appears the departmental concept was dropped and the dorms became general student housing or converted into offices for nomadic campus offices (mainly residence life). Almost two decades passed before the remaining five buildings were demolished to make way for Academic Building 4.
 
 
Map
 
 
Namesake
Various
 
 
1956 -Buildings A-C
1957 -Buildings D-I
1974 - Renovated
1982 - Building A, D, F, and H Demolished
2000 - Building B, C, E, G, and I Demolished
 
 
Houstonian, April 1, 1977