Mansfield University - Carontawan Yearbook (Mansfield, PA)

Page 19 text:

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.

Page 18 text:

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

Page 20 text:

in tne middle 01 tne decade, aDoui iour nundred students were enroneo at tne iNormal School. North Hall was still unfinished when the year 1908 began. By the spring of that year, however, the remaining portion of the original building had been dismantled and removed, and the construction of the new south wing got under way. The first three floors of this final section were occupied in early 1909. and. soon, after, the entire south wing was furnished and in use. In the fall of 1910, a three-manual Austin organ, claimed to be the finest school pipe organ in the state, was in- stalled in the third floor auditorium of Alumni Hall. The organ was later reconstructed and moved into Straughn Hall in 1930. The year of 1912 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Mansfield ' s recognition as a State Normal School, and a five-day Semi-Centennial Celebration was held from June 16 to 20. All over town, stores and homes were draped with red and black, and Alumni Hall was filled to overflowing for the many special programs that were held. As a part of the Semi-Centennial observance, a memorial tablet was presented by the student body and placed in Alumni Hall. Hand carved from dark wood, this tablet bore the words, Semi-Centennial Memorial, 1862-1912. Character, Scholarship, Culture, Service. Today, the tablet is found in the lobby of Straughn Hall. The graduat- ing class that year numbered one hundred and fifty two, the largest in the school ' s history. When the tower of Alumni Hall was built and the bell was hung in the 1880 ' s, no clock was included, and the hands on the clock faces were merely painted on. The bell was rung by hand at periodic intervals during the day. Finally, however, a clock was installed, and it has been striking the hours over Mansfield ever since. Between the time of Fordyce A. Allen ' s death in 1880 and the beginning of William R. Straughn ' s administration in 1914, many outstanding men and women taught at the Normal School and in the Model School. The names of Harvey J. Van Norman, Hamlin E. Cogswell, G. Clayton Robertson, I. M. Gayman. William R. Longstreet. Eliza J. Boyce, and Mrs. Mary Adelaide Jenks are still familiar to those who have known the institution. When Andrew Thomas Smith left the principalship in 1913, the Board of Trustees chose, as his successor. William Ringgold Straughn, who had been Superintendent of Schools at Dubois, Pennsylvania. Vast changes were wrought in the institution during Dr. Straughn ' s twenty-two years of leadership. In 1914, the first year of Dr. Straughn ' s administration, the separate town and country elementary schools in 16 This is the front campus of the Normal School as it appeared in 1915. North Hall, the women ' s dormitory, had been completed six years before