Tower Garden - A Place to Remember

Tower Garden - A Place to Remember

Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on UT Austin Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

This quiet garden beside the Turtle Pond is the university's memorial to August 1, 1966, when a gunman fired from the Tower's observation deck, killing and wounding many people on campus and the streets nearby before police ended the attack. It was one of the first mass shootings of its kind in the United States, and it changed how police across the country respond to such attacks.

For years the campus said little about that day. In 1999 the university named this space the Tower Garden in honor of those who were killed and wounded and everyone who suffered. On the 50th anniversary in 2016, it added a new memorial of Fredericksburg granite honoring the victims, along with a bench and two cypress trees.

Take a moment here. Read the memorial, sit on the bench, and look up at the Tower, which is above all a place of learning. Then walk a few steps back to the Main Mall to close the loop where you began.

Getting here: Step a few yards west of the Turtle Pond to the small garden with the granite memorial and bench.

Did you know?: Each year the Tower goes dark except for its white top during UT Remembers, the service honoring members of the university community who died that year.

Photo op: Out of respect, photograph the memorial simply: the granite stone and cypress trees, with the Tower softly in the background.

More on Wikipedia: University of Texas tower shooting · Main Building

Stops on this tour

  1. Main Building and UT Tower - The Campus Landmark
  2. Battle Hall - The Building That Set the Style
  3. Texas Union - The Living Room of Campus
  4. Harry Ransom Center - Treasures in the Lobby
  5. Littlefield Fountain - The Gateway to the Tower
  6. Ellsworth Kelly's Austin - A Chapel of Light
  7. Blanton Museum of Art - Petals on the Plaza
  8. Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium - A War Memorial That Roars
  9. LBJ Presidential Library - Travertine Monument
  10. The Seven Mustangs - Proctor's Last Great Herd
  11. Turtle Pond - The Shadiest Spot on Campus
  12. Tower Garden - A Place to Remember