"Housing" for The Journalism Department

After its initial formation, the Journalism Department was moved into an "old shack" called "J Hall," located where the West Mall Office Building now stands. There they shared the space with the School of Institutional History. Besides the heavy and primitive printing machinery, "J Hall" was heated by coal burning stoves. After appropriations for the School of Journalism were cutoff in 1925, journalism facilities moved to another "shack," known as "T Hall," off of speedway and near Gregory Gym.

Two years later, with the new label of "Department of Journalism," students and faculty again moved to a dilapidated "B hall," which had been a boy's dormitory originally named Brackenridge Hall. There, journalism students shared their classes on the main floor with Texas Student Publications, and the Publicity Office was placed in the basement. 1933 and the depths of the Depression found the Department moving into the "Old Engineering Building." There Journalism shared the building with Texas Student Publications, the Division of Publicity, the Department of Applied Mathematics, Germanic Languages Department, and the Geology Department.

"In the reporting laboratory eight typewriters rested on rickety tables. Students often brought portable typewriters to the laboratory, placing their machines on a chair or a window sill. Some students preferred to type at home. Waiting for a typewriter in the laboratory must have been time consuming, since many students used the "hunt-and-peck" system." (Mayer, Gary Howard. Journalism at the University of Texas, 1927-1964. Thesis. January, 1965. page 6.)

Journalism students and faculty stayed there until the completion of a "new Journalism Building," in 1952. The "new Journalism Building" was located at the corner of Whitis Avenue and 24th street, which today is known as the "Geography Building." In 1965 the School of Journalism, the Department of Speech and a newly formed Department of Radio-Television-Film, all originally housed in the College of Liberal Arts, became three departments officially organized as the School of Communication. This new college called for a new facility to house all of the departments together.

In 1968, construction of the three building Communication complex began and was completed in 1974. Later in 1979, the School of Communication became the College of Communication, and in 1982, the building was officially named the Jesse H. Jones Communication Center. Former Dean and Journalism Chairman, Wayne Danielson, said the intended separation of the CMB media studios, the CMA academic center, and the Texas Student Publications represented cultural values during its construction time. "It was important then to keep academics separate from the T.V. and media stuff," said Danielson. "But gradually, new designs are showing the integration of the fields coming together. This kind of expresses historically the way things were. This building has been flexible, and changed with its time." The Daily Texan office, which rests in the bowels of the complex, cannot be entered by either of the other communication buildings. According to Danielson, this was done purposely to represent the independence of the student press