{"nrhp_refnum":"70000763","name":"Battle Hall","other_names":["Old Barker History Center"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"South Mall, University of Texas campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Austin","county":"Travis County","state":"TX","lat":30.285596046000023,"lon":-97.74051366999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-08-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Battle Hall (formerly the Old Library and Barker History Center) is a two-story limestone library building on the South Mall of the University of Texas at Austin campus, built 1910-1911 and designed by Cass Gilbert.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as one of the best buildings on the campus and a fine example of Mediterranean Renaissance design by the noted architect Cass Gilbert. It is listed for architecture and education. It also housed the university's Texas history collections after 1946.","narrative":"Battle Hall, once known as the Old Library and later the Barker History Center, is a two-story building of smooth cream-colored limestone on the South Mall of the University of Texas at Austin. The Regents appropriated $211,000 for a library in December 1909 and hired New York architect Cass Gilbert, who finished the work by 1911. Its design draws on Spanish and Mediterranean Renaissance sources, with a red tile roof, wide projecting eaves, deep-set openings with iron grills, and seven large arched second-story windows framed in polychrome terracotta. Terracotta medallions show zodiac signs, and a marble staircase with ornamental iron balustrades rises to a beamed reading room. The nomination describes it as one of the best buildings on the campus. In 1946 the Regents named it for historian Eugene C. Barker and moved the university's Texas and Southwest materials there; it was dedicated as the Center in 1950. A later request changed its common name to Battle Hall.","period_of_significance":"1910-1911","architect_builder":"Cass Gilbert of New York City","architectural_style":"Mediterranean Renaissance","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good condition, altered, on its original site, and occupied for educational use. The form lists no current-use details beyond that.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.60213-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/27/9737/40973727/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/70000763.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000763/5a30542cf5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000763/5a30542cf5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_hall_2014.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_hall_2014.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973727","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4870050"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/travis-county/battle-hall-70000763/"}