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NEWS
| October 10, 2003
Stardome
Secret
The planetarium was originally
used as a slaughterhouse.
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| The Shorthorn: Jessica Felkel |
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By Kate
Bolen
The Shorthorn staff
Astronomy students may not realize that as they gaze at stars in
the planetarium, they sit atop a floor covering slaughterhouse tales.
Even Physical Plant employees say they don’t know about it.
But Gerald Saxon does.
Dr. Saxon, Libraries associate director, said the round attachment
to Preston Hall is one of the university’s unique treasures.
He is considered an expert on the university’s history.
The “slaughterhouse,” as students called it in the 1920s
and ’30s, has been converted for different uses during the
decades. The structure has seen its share of remodeling: It’s
also been a meatpacking plant, an art studio and a classroom.
“It is probably the most notable and recognizable building
on campus because of its interesting architecture and history,”
Saxon said.
Gary Spurr, special collections archivist, said the amphitheater
style structure was built in 1927 with Preston Hall, then a science
building. At that time, the university was Arlington State College
and was affiliated with the Texas A&M System.
Pigs and cattle, raised on the college’s farm, were dissected
there for classes in meat processing, Spurr said.
“Students dubbed it the slaughterhouse while it was still
functioning, and it just stuck,” Spurr said.
He said students who were looking into jobs as meat inspectors or
packers took butchering classes.
The slaughterhouse was closed in 1940.
“They could possibly have just stopped teaching the classes,”
Spurr said. “The farm where they raised crops, cattle and
pigs stayed open until the 1950s, though.”
After it was shut down, then art professor Howard Joiner suggested
covering the indention in the floor used as a drain for the slaughterhouse
and converting the space to teach art classes.
Physical Plant Director Jeff Johnson said he didn’t know what
was under the floor and was surprised to learn the structure’s
original use.
When the art classes moved, the structure became a general classroom.
In the 1980s, the building was converted into the planetarium.
“I would never have guessed it could be used for something
so interesting,” nursing freshman Kayla Murillo said.
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