What’s so significant to Baylor about these columns?

When it comes to iconic Baylor imagery, near the top of the list — just behind the Judge Baylor statue and the Burleson Quadrangle/Pat Neff Hall skyline — is a series of four columns. Visitors to campus, for instance, are greeted by large signs at the edges of the university that noticeably stand on four pillars.

You might think the columns are a reference to Pat Neff Hall — but they actually harken back almost 100 years before that.

Participants in Baylor Line Camp learn the answer: The columns date all the way back to Baylor’s original campus in Independence, Texas, where the university began in 1845 and remained until 1886.

In the decades following Baylor’s move to Waco, many of the building materials used for the old Independence campus were repurposed for other buildings around town, until there was little left of the old university.

One of the few remnants from that time are the four stone columns that once fronted the “Baylor Female Building.” Built in 1857, it housed classrooms, an auditorium, a library and recreation rooms for the women of Baylor. After Baylor moved to Waco, the building was used for another decade or so by the short-lived William Carey Crane College. Then in the early 20th century, a fire gutted what was left of the building, leaving only the columns and stone archway.

Over time, those columns came to stand (pun intended) as a remembrance of the university’s history. In recent years, Baylor and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor have worked together to help restore what remains of Baylor at Independence, creating unique parklands from the old campus. Since 2006, Baylor Line Camp participants have enjoyed a trip back to Independence, where they receive their Line jerseys during a moving ceremony around the columns.

Baylor University remains the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Texas, dating back to its charter in 1845 by the Republic of Texas. The four columns remind us of that history and of where we came from.

Sic ’em, Bears!