The year is 1905. At the turn of the century, Dallas led the Southwest’s book, drug, jewelry and wholesale liquor market plus the world’s inland cotton market and the manufacture of saddlery and cotton-gin machinery. Businessmen were trying to grow our city’s population, and then-U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt came to visit Dallas in good spirits.
And on Oct. 3 of that year, the State Dental College opened its first fall session in a grocery store where the Adolphus Hotel is now in Downtown.
We now know that school by a different name — Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, currently on Gaston Avenue, just north of Deep Ellum. Before that, the institution had the Baylor name attached to it for decades. This year, the college is celebrating its 120th anniversary.
The early days
Forty students came to the State Dental College in 1905, according to Baylor College of Dentistry: The First 100 Years (which was used to map out the school’s past in this article). Four — one Texas resident, two from present-day Oklahoma and one from Japan — graduated the next year, having already studied at other schools prior. Tuition at the time cost $100 for the year and $65-$75 for dental equipment. Room and board was available at boarding houses for $15-$25 per month.
Source: A look back at Texas A&M University College of Dentistry’s 120-year-old history / Advocate