Old Red is what locals call the Ashbel Smith Building, red brick and sandstone in front of you. This Romanesque Revival structure was built in 1891 of red brick and sandstone, and its designer was Nicholas J. Clayton. It was the first building for the University of Texas Medical Branch, a beginning that gives the place a special, civic calm.
In 1949 the building took the name of Ashbel Smith, a Republic of Texas diplomat and one of the founders of the University of Texas System, a name that ties it to both state and medical history. It was recognized as a Texas Historical Landmark in 1969 and given careful attention with a renovation in 1985. Remarkably, this building was one of the few to survive the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, and it endured again when Hurricane Ike flooded Old Red with six feet of water in 2008.
Stand close and you can almost feel that history in the weight of the brick and the contrasting sandstone. Picture the six feet of floodwater Hurricane Ike left here in 2008, one more storm this brick and sandstone survived.