Rice University started classes 103 years ago today

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Rice University opened 103 years ago today – exactly a dozen years after William Marsh Rice’s death. The strange history of one of the most prestigious schools in the United States starts with a murder.

The businessman had chartered the William Marsh Rice Institute in 1891, but stipulated that the project could not begin until after his own death. On Sept. 23, 1900, William Marsh Rice died in his New York apartment under mysterious circumstances. And the money for the school almost ended up in the hands of Rice’s lawyer Albert Patrick.

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A new will produced by Patrick gave him the majority of the estate. But an autopsy revealed Rice had been killed by chloroform. Patrick and his valet Charlie Jones would be implicated in the murder. (Jones would turn on his accomplice in exchange for immunity; Patrick spent a dozen years in prison until receiving a pardon due to issues with evidence in the case).

The sensational death of Rice, a Massachusetts native who made his fortune in Texas, became a national story. But his demise and the subsequent legal battle that gave $4.6 million to found a school meant that work on the Rice Institute could begin.

Classes were held for the first time on Sept. 23, 1912. The inaugural year at Rice featured 12 faculty members and 77 students (all white; Rice stated his school would be for white’s only. The first black student enrolled in 1963).

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Opportunely, the date September 23 now ties together a plot to try to ruin the university's founding and the school’s eventual opening. Today the private university consistently ranks as the best in Texas and one of the top colleges in the nation.

The walls of Rice University have plenty of their own mysteries. See the gallery above for a look at the hidden secrets and symbols at Rice.