Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

Page 9 text:

Merrill and Lowry halls are erected in 1912 to become the first buildings at Kent State Normal. Elsewhere, in 1910, another philanthropist is establishing the Carnegie Endowment for Inter- national Peace. Irving Berlin is composing Alexander ' s Ragtime Band. Stoves, electric fans, irons, vacuum cleaners and hair driers are invading the American home. Now workmen up on Kent ' s Normal hill are chopping, digging, sweating. Kent State Normal! Kent State Normal! Finest school in all the West! yells a chorus. Kent State Normal! Kent State Normal! Then a professor of Kent State meets some friends from Bowling Green one evening. You should see how Kent State is rising, he boasts. Yes, I was there only yesterday, replies one of his Bowling Green friends. Ah, says he, you should have seen it this morning! Finally the corner stone of the classroom- administration building (later known as Mer- rill hall) is ready to be laid. It ' s Tuesday, June 18, 1912, and in another year the institution will be in operation. Striding along a worn path to the special flag-bedecked platform is a man of medium height, with keen, deep-sunken eyes and a kindly, strong-lined face; these things make him handsome. He displays a confident charm that makes the people he passes know without being told that this is Dr. John E. Mc- Gilvrey. He was selected by the first Board of Trustees, appointed by Governor Harmon, as the first President. President McGilvrey, age 44, glances at the classroom-administration building under con- struction and then at a partially complete resi- dence hall (later Lowry hall). The buildings must excite him. Each will be two stories in height, with a basement on the ground level. Principles of teaching, history of education and psychology will be taught in the building on McGilvrey ' s right. This building will have 30 rooms for offices, classrooms and laboratories. The largest room will be a chapel-auditorium on the top floor. The building will house all depart- ments and administrative offices, as well as the training school. The dormitory on the Presi- dent ' s left will be constructed in suites of three rooms. Each suite will accommodate four young women with a study and two bedrooms, for a total of 80 persons. A kitchen and accompany- ing dining rooms, capable of serving 250 stu- dents, will be included. McGilvrey mounts the platform, and in a few moments he delivers the principal address. The Normal school, President McGilvrey believes, is not limited by a narrow profes- sional aim. In the classroom and even in the actual work of training the ultimate aim is to broaden and deepen, to quicken and refine the life of its students. It is dripping rain when he concludes his speech, a baptism of the infant school, Mc- Gilvrey says. Then, Frank Merrill, board mem- ber, drives the corner stone into place, not guess- ing the building will one day bear his name. Normal School Subscription. The ulidersigned hereby agrees to pay the sum o ' ' u. ' C s -i ' - ' Dollars to The Kent National Bank Trustee to be used in fuljllling obligations made by The Kent Board of Trade to the State of Ohio in the matter of securing in Kent the location of The North- eastern Ohio Normal School, which amount I agree to pay on or Itefore February 1, 1911. Kent.O., K y 191 ' , ' , ' . - - Local merchants and townspeople pledged sums of money to secure a normal school in Kent.

Page 8 text:

William S. Kent On a University Birthday by Don Webb Fifty years ago a great thing happened, remarks President Bowman to 18-year-old Laird Brown, a freshman journalism major from Twin Lakes. They pause near a large oak tree by a driveway outside the Hub. A man who has devoted his Hfe to training and guiding young people into maturity gazes across a shady green campus filled with oaks and pines. Let ' s imagine it ' s May 19, 1910, he continues. That ' s when Governor Judson Harmon signed a bill passed by the Ohio General assembly to authorize the building of two new teacher training schools in Ohio. It ' s a rainy Tuesday morning the following September, President Bowman tells Laird, and a commission of five men stand alone near the Erie depot in downtown Kent. Damp and wet, they ' re completing a tour, including 14 north- eastern Ohio towns, to pick sites for the state normals. They choose finally a magnificent natural park at Bowling Green, and because of its favorable location and its beauty, they choose a farm donated by William S. Kent, local bank president and publisher of the Kent Courier. Downtown Kent in 1909 is a scene of activity. A slogan calls it the home of hump and hustle. Davey Tree men clear the woods to make way for Kent State Normal School m 1911

Page 10 text:

John E. McGilvrey President, 1911-1926 Buildi ins: a School Trained teachers are needed immediately, Laird, President Bowman continues his story. Thousands of them! Things begin to roll. The first extension program in Ohio is started by Kent State Normal School. Instructors are hired, classes organized, centers established. Full credit given! That ' s how President McGil- vrey is bridging the gap of time from founding until campus classes start. McGilvrey ' s purpose, explains President Bowman, is to bring the school to the students since the students cannot come to the unfinished school. There are a total of 29 classes at 20 cen- ters, enrolling 849 students. Four instructors, John T. Johnson, George E. Marker, May H. Prentice and Helen M. Atkinson, teach the ex- tension students. By 1913, the $150,000 state appropriated institution on Normal hill is open to classes, of- fering a two-year program. There is no road extending across the college campus. There are no sidewalks of any kind and few outside lights. Early board of trustees, l.-r.: John A. McDowell, Mrs. William S. Kent, James P. Seward, Edwin F. Moulton, Frank A. Merrill, Peter W. Doyle, John E. McGilvrey, Geor,[io F. Hammond, William S. Kent. The brush and trees are so thick that Main street cannot be seen from the hilltop. First roll call! Forty-seven students and 20 teachers answer. Their cost for instruction? Why — it ' s absolutely free! And board? Room? Laundry? Books? Stationery? Why — all for as little as $60 total for a 12-week term! McGilvrey by this time is thinking of in- augurating a four-year course for high school teachers, principals and superintendents, lead- ing to the degree of B.Ped. (bachelor of ped- agogy ) if there should develop a demand in this field of work. Meanwhile, the United States is thinking of inaugurating a president. Kent carries Wood- row Wilson in November with 524 votes to Roosevelt ' s 308, Debs ' 213, and Taft ' s 199. Wil- son wins, and, later, the Federal Reserve Sys- tem is born. Then, other firsts are scored. First Federal income tax law; first ship through the Panama Canal; first transcontinental tele- phone call. And, at Kent State Normal, a first of another kind is taking place — the first graduat- ing class. Ohio Governor James M. Cox is de- livering the commencement address. It ' s July 29, 1914, and 34 students will be graduated to- day before a crowd of 3,000 persons. July. It ' s an exciting month for K. S. N. in many ways. Besides graduating its first class, Kent ' s extension-class enrollment has passed the 1,600 mark. On-campus enrollment has jumped from 47 a year ago, to 537; there now are 96 men and 441 women. A contract was awarded last November to construct the audi- torium, library, gymnasium and office building (later the present Administration building), and this month a second contract was awarded to build an agriculture and science building (later Kent hall). Plans also are being consid-