hey are gone now. A quiet green space now covers the site where for nearly seventy years young men lived and studied. Law and Puryear Halls served as housing for thousands of Aggies for many decades until the ravages of time and economics finally doomed the twin structures to the wrecking ball.
   Law and Puryear Halls were mirror image dormitories, identical in every respect. They each contained 108 rooms. Constructed in 1927, at a cost of slightly over $155,000 apiece, they were the first dorms built on the campus following the construction of Bizzell Hall in 1918. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas was chronically short of student housing. In fact, the dorms were built on the site of one the college's symbols of overcrowding, the famous "Hollywood" shacks of the 1920's. The two structures formed a block U around a large courtyard facing the drill field. The initial design by Henry Norton June, head of the department of architecture and college architect, had them facing the YMCA.

  The dorms were simple, bordering almost on the austere. Unlike more ornate campus buildings there were no columns, no belt courses and almost no ornamentation. They had modest cast stone cornices and plain brick wall stopped with brick parapets. The projecting two-story entrances helped to alleviate some of the plainness. The most important claim made by Texas A&M at the time was that they were fireproof, an important feature considering the past history of conflagrations at the school.
   Law Hall was named for Francis M. Law, class of 1895 and member of the Board of Directors for twenty-seven years(1917-45, president of the board 1924-45).  Puryear Hall was named for Charles Puryear (see page 17 of the April '97 Texas Aggie), member of the faculty for forty-three years and first dean of the college. Both were well known and widely respected within the Aggie community. Their namesake buildings would enjoy even longer tenure on campus.
   Law and Puryear Halls were demolished during the summer of 1996 after long and protracted debate over the cost to maintain them. To many residents and former residents of the halls, it was like losing an old friend and they fought hard to keep them around. In the end, the cost of repairing the structures was too prohibitive.
   Unfortunately, there is little recorded history of the building. The University Archives in the Cushing Library contains only a small file that gives just a glimpse of the structures' life and times. Little has been recorded over the years. Thus, it is, with most of the dormitories on the campus. The real stories are locked away in the minds of those who lived there during their college days.