The first “College Hill Festival” will include festivities at the former Trinity University campus, which is now under restoration in Tehuacana.

TEHUACANA, Texas — The first-ever College Hill Festival will bring hundreds to Tehuacana, a small town with a long history in Limestone County.

It’s part of the effort by Preservation Texas to restore Texas Hall which has a fascinating origin story and is one of the state’s endangered treasures.

“Texas Hall is probably the largest and most significant unrestored historic building in Texas from the 19th century. It was the birthplace of Trinity University. And it was constructed beginning in 1871 and completed in its current form in 1892. And it’s been more or less falling apart since the 1960s, ” said Preservation Texas Executive Director Evan Thompson.



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“Most recently, about 2022, the roof over the auditorium completely collapsed. So this very significant building has been at risk, particularly so over the last 4 to 5 years,” he continued.

As part of the ongoing restoration and programming work at Texas Hall, the College Hill Festival is planned for Saturday, Oct. 8, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and invites visitors to travel to Tehuacana to enjoy learning more about the history and food. Visitors will also meet artisans and even experience a rummage sale.

“Saturday is going to be a great opportunity for people to come out and see what was and can be a very beautiful campus. We’ll have an opportunity to visit with different preservation organizations, historical organizations that will have displays. We’ll have historic vehicles. We’ll have exhibits. We have an incredible collection of early Texas furniture and decorative arts that will be displayed, and it will be a chance for people to envision what’s to come,” Thompson said.

“Our hope is to convert the campus into what we call the Preservation Texas Institute. So it will be a place where we can gather not just preservation professionals and historians, but the public as well to learn about preservation and history and also hands-on preservation trades. And so, we’re hoping that by bringing an educational function back to the campus, we can help to revive the economic prospects for Tehuacana as a great little town,” he said.

 More information about the Preservation Texas Institute project is available at savetexashall.org.