Del Mar College kicked off its year-long 90th anniversary celebration with the grand re-opening of the Memorial Classroom Building on the Heritage Campus on Feb. 6. The event included the unveiling of a Texas State Historical Marker from the Texas Historical Commission, followed by a tour of the renovated building.
Built in 1942, the Memorial Classroom Building was the first permanent structure on the campus of Corpus Christi Junior College (CCJC), which later became Del Mar College (DMC). For decades, it housed many of the college’s core classes, serving as the academic heart of the institution during its early years.
Today, the building serves as the college’s administrative center, housing the president’s office, general administration, and finance departments, among others. The nearly $17.8-million modernization of the building is part of the $157 million-bond project passed by voters in 2014 as part of Heritage and Windward campus capital improvement projects.
The new historical marker represents the building’s vital contribution to the college’s legacy and its enduring influence on the education scene in the Coastal Bend region.
The building also played a critical role in the cultural movements of the 1960s and ‘70s. Groups hosted meetings and speeches during the Chicano movement and was home to the Del Mar College Mexican American Student Organization, founded in 1969, which advocated for the rights of Mexican American students.
Nueces County Historical Society Trustee RudyTejano Pena attended the event, and reminisced of his own ties to Del Mar College in the 1960s, initially to educate the Tejano identity.
“In ‘97, ‘98, ‘99 I wrote about Texas Independence in the Foghorn newspaper. I did presentations here at DMC about Texas Independence. I took some automotive classes as well,” said Pena.
The historical marker was the results of a 2017 project by former students Troy Nessner and Preston Martin, under the guidance of history professor Mark Robbins.
