By Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor
Seventy years ago in the fall of 1954, the dream that was Tidwell Bible Building came to fruition. Since then, thousands of students have made their way through the building’s halls and classrooms, becoming a part of Baylor’s long legacy of scholars.
According to Dr. Doug Weaver, the Religion Department chair who has worked in Tidwell since 2003, the building has served several purposes over the years outside of what its title might suggest.
“Religion has always been in the building,” Weaver said. “But as you know, we don’t just do Bible in here. We do church history; we do Christian history; we do Christian ethics and theology. So the religion department is more expanded.”
In addition to religion, the history, philosophy and sociology departments have also called Tidwell home at various points in time. But up until only a few years ago when the renovations occurred, Tidwell was where all students took their core religion classes, said Dr. Mikeal Parsons, a professor of religion.
“Everybody back in the day had to take religion classes, and they took them in this building,” he said. “For many, many years, it was the center of religion at the university because all the students would come here and then next door [Waco Hall], they’d all go to chapel. That’s all changed.”
Parsons, who has been working and teaching in Tidwell since 1986, said the building’s construction was inspired by Dr. Josiah Blake Tidwell, the religion department’s long-serving chair from 1910-1946, but that its beginning was also rooted in rivalry. The architect who came up with the original plan for the building intended for it to contest with the ALICO in height and with the University of Chicago’s stained glass windows in grandeur and size.
Eventually, the university decided this plan wasn’t feasible for construction, so they fired the original architect, resulting in a lawsuit. A new architect was then hired: Birch D. Easterwood, who also assisted in designing the Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin. This version of the building reflects its purpose, taking on the appearance and shape of a Bible between bookends, Parsons said. The reliefs on the front, back and sides of the building depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament are also a result of Easterwood’s work, he said, though some have been left blank.
“The Old Testament is complete,” Parsons said. “The New Testament — there are only nine of these — and the Good Shepherd is the only one from the life of Christ. There were supposed to be a number of others, but they ran out of funding so they stopped with it.”
The reliefs aren’t the only works of art Tidwell contains, Parsons said. Years ago, when his office was on the sixth floor of the building, he recalled discovering a secret set of artworks hidden away on the next floor up.
“The Noze Brothers had a place up on the seventh floor,” Parsons said. “Right outside my office was a staircase that led up into the seventh floor which was unfinished, but there were — I’m sure they’re still there — murals that were done by different people. The rumor was that it was the work of The Noze Brothers.”
However, Parsons said he never actually saw any of the Groucho glasses-clad suspects enter or leave the room. Now, after the renovations in 2021, the upper floors are mainly swipe access only and consist of graduate student offices, conference rooms and storage for government documents, he said.
The version of Tidwell before the renovations occurred, which Weaver referred to as “The Old Tidwell,” had classrooms that could hold up to 60 people. It also contained the Miller Memorial Chapel, which has now been replaced with office space. He said the chapel was a place where students studied, napped and even got married.
With the renovations have come milestones to “point the way forward” for the religion department, Weaver said.
“Right outside Tidwell now there are two statues, the first two African American graduates of Baylor, Barbara Walker and Robert Gilbert,” Weaver said. “Those two people really fit Tidwell. I think that they indicate what Tidwell really means and what Tidwell could mean. So it’s the inclusion of minorities, both in Black Americans. And I think Tidwell represents the fact that we believe that the Gospel is for everybody, for all races and all classes and all genders.”
