Mansfield University - Carontawan Yearbook (Mansfield, PA)

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AT THE T OFTHECEN In 1900, Alumni Hall was about fifteen years old. Not only the Normal School auditorium, but also classrooms for the Normal School and Train ing School were located here. When this picture of North Hall was taken, only the north wing (left) and the central portion. of the present building had been completed, between 1891 and 1894. The section at the south was what remained of the original North Hall, erected in 1874. When the south- wing of the present building was later con- structed, this old structure was torn away. This is the old Gymnasium (now the Student Center) as it originally appeared. Note the arched entrance at the south. The lines of the building have since been simplified. This is how South Hall, the oldest building on the a decade after its enlargement in 188°. nppeared about

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Sl Mj Dr. Samuel H. Albro became principal in 1892, at a time when the Normal School was undergoing a rapid expansion. By September, 1873, when the Reverend Dr. Jason N. Fradenburgh succeeded Professor Verrill, Mansfield ' s population had reached one thousand. The rhost important event to occur during Dr. Fraden- burgh ' s administration was the erection, in 1874, of the second brick building on the campus. The dining hall was transferred to this new four-story building, which also became the women ' s dormitory and was the fore- runner of today ' s North Hall. The old Normal building continued to house the men. I In the photograph shown inside the front cover, the new building is shown at the left, the old building at the right. The picture was taken before the balcony had yet been built onto the new women ' s dormitory. The white schoolhouse, built in 1838, is still standing.) Charles H. Verrill was elected principal for a second time in September, 1875. Then, in September, 1877, Fordyce A. Allen returned to the principalship. When the new women ' s dormitory was finished in 1874, the Model School, open to a limited number of children under fourteen, took a suite of rooms in the building. In 1877, it was announced that the school would be com- pletely reconstructed, no pupil to be received for less than one year. During his administration, Professor Allen succeeded in having a law passed in the state legislature that no intoxicating liquors could be sold, or billiard tables kept, within two miles of the Normal School. At this time, all prospective graduates took what were called the State Board Examinations, which were given orally and covered a student ' s entire work at Mansfield. The earliest Normal School Commencements were held in the school chapel. After the completion of the present Methodist Church building in 1872, they were usually held there until Alumni Hall was built. In the early days, each member of the class wrote and delivered an original oration or essay. Fordyce A. Allen died an untimely death on February 11, 1880. Because of his work, the school had been placed on a firm foundation. As a result, it was now ready for the tremendous expansion that it was about to undergo. Professor Joseph C. Doane served as principal during the remainder of the 1879-80 school year. In September, 1880, the principalship was assumed by Dennison C. Thomas, who was recognized as an executive, financier, and scholar. At that time, there were still only two good buildings on the Mansfield Campus, the old and yet unremodeled South Hall and the original North Hall. During the administration of Dr. Thomas, however, a tremendous construc- tion program was launched. When Dr. Thomas left in 1892, after twelve years as principal, the face of this campus had been almost completely changed and it had begun to take on the appearance of modern Mansfield. The first of these chan ges was the erection of Alumni Hall, begun about 1884 and completed in the spring of 1886. The building, named after the Alumni Association, which donated the bell, was to house for the next forty- three years the school auditorium. It was here that the Normal School commencements were held. Over the years, Alumni Hall also served as a building for college classes, for the Model School, and for a time, the junior high school. With its high towers overlooking the college and the town, the new building presented a striking appearance, practically unchanged down to the present day. In 1888, the old Gymnasium was built. Its principle feature was its large drill hall, in which the ladies were drilled in light training and the gentlemen in military discipline and tactics. After half a century as the Gymnasium, this building is still in active use as the Student Center. 13

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The appearance of old South Hall, the original Normal building, wa s substantially altered the next year when it was enlarged and extensively remodeled. The College Library was a few years later moved into this building. By 1890, only one of the four buildings on the campus looked as it had a mere decade before. That was the original North Hall, or Ladies ' Building, and around it grew up the most ambitious project of all. Plans, announced in 1891, called for a completely reconstructed Ladies ' Building, which, when finished, would measure two hundred seventy feet in length and would be five and a half stories high. This was to be the present North Hall, still the third largest women ' s dormitory among the fourteen Pennsylvania state teachers colleges. The North wing, which contained the large dining room still in use, was completed in 1892. The central portion of the building was finished two years later. About one third of the original North Hall, built in 1874, was torn away when the central portion of the present building was built. It was decided, however, to leave the remaining two-thirds of the old four-story structure standing and to let it serve as the southern portion of North Hall until a new south wing could be built. This unusual arrangement was to last for fourteen years. Meanwhile, progress in other fields continued under Dr. Thomas ' s administration. In 1887, Hamlin E. Cogs- well became Director of Music and organized the Normal School of Music on the plan of the leading conservatories of America and Europe. In addition to this four-year conservatory course, there was a two year course given in public school music. The Art Department was also an important feature of the Normal School. Instruction was given in drawing and painting, and illustrated lectures were presented. The Training School, or Model School, took tremendous strides while Dr. Thomas was princip al. In 1881, there were five grades in all, each with about twenty pupils. The pupils in the five grades varied in ages from eight to fourteen. Each student teacher had twenty-one weeks of practice teaching, which was divided among the different grades. By 1892, however, the training school took pupils from six to sixteen. It had eleven grades with ten to twenty pupils in each grade. In 1891, expenses at Mansfield were lower than at any other school of its type in the state. They amounted to one hundred and eighty-nine dollars a year for dormitory students, or fourteen dollars per term. The tremendous growth of the Normal School during Dr. Thomas ' twelve years as principal is shown by the fact that, in 1880, the year Dr. Thomas took over, the graduates numbered thirty. In 1891, the year before he resigned, there were one hundred and seven men and women graduated. Dr. Tho mas was succeeded as principal in 1892 by Samuel H. Albro, who continued the high ideals of his pred- ecessor. The departments of the Normal School in the middle 1890 ' s were those of pedagogy (now called education), language, mathematics, physical science, history and civil government, physiology and hygiene (and physical cul- ture) , and the arts. By the late nineties, all the buildings on the Mansfield campus were lighted by electricity. Andrew Thomas Smith succeeded Dr. Albro as principal in 1899. During Dr. Smith ' s administration, Mansfield and the other State Normal Schools came closer to college calibre. The old courses of study were dropped in 1902. New courses, worked out by the normal school principals of the state at a meeting in Harrisburg, were put into effect. As a result, the regular course was expanded from two to three years. Just six years later, a four-year course of study was adopted by the Pennsylvania normal schools. The long-established Music Department at Mansfield had enjoyed especially rapid growth around the turn of the century. For that reason in 1903 the department was renamed the Mans- field Conservatory of Music, and its instruction was made more complete. Here is a scene from a physical education class in the Gymnasium around the turn of the century. A great deal of use appears to have been made of gymnastic apparatus.