February 12, 1982: thirty years ago a fire in the early morning hours destroyed Old Main and severely damaged the Austin College Building. Said then-president Bowers: "We would not have traded our faded and antiquated Old Main for the sterile sleekness of glass-and-aluminum palaces. But Time and Fate did not give us the option of a trade, and one bleak February morning we stood among the ashes and embers of our collective past...."

The concept of an entire graduating class presenting their alma mater with a gift may seem strange to seniors in this day and age but it was very much the norm up to the mid-20th Century. Scholarships and works of art were the usual gifts – such as the Statue of Athena, donated by the class of 1911-12. A century later the goddess of wisdom still stands in Art Building E.