In 1924 UT’s Engineering College, in cooperation with the National Association of Marble Dealers, aided by Smith-Hughes funds for trade training, inaugurated a 12-week session of the only marble setters school (The Apprentice Training School for Marble Setters) in the United States. The school required attendance 50 hours a week, 36 of which were devoted to cutting and setting the marble, 6 to marble drafting, 6 to estimating and blueprint reading, and 2 to business methods.
The school was established at the request of John B. Jones, president of the Gray-Knox Marble Company and the National Association of Marble Mill operators to help relieve the shortage of skilled workers in the marble setting trade. Each class installed some permanent work in university buildings. Students installed marble wainscoting in the locker room and washroom of Estabrook and in the main room of Pasqua. Toilet rooms in Ayres were provided with both floors and wainscot. The school continued through the 1926–27 academic year.