Mansfield University - Carontawan Yearbook (Mansfield, PA)

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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

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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.

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Mansfield were merged and moved into the newly completed Model School building. (This structure is known today as the Education Center.) A kindergarten was inaugurated the following year. Up to 1920, although the Normal School was part of the state teacher-training system, it was owned by stock- holders. That year, however, the institution was purchased by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and placed under full state control. Marked advances were made in Mansfield ' s program and facilities in at least three separate fields because of this transfer. In September, 1920, a ninth grade was established in the basement of Alumni Hall. At the beginning of the next year, the seventh and eighth grades were moved over from the Model School, and the first floor of Alumni Hall became the seat of the new junior high school. The Music Department took an important step forward in 1921 when Mrs. Grace Steadman, head of the depart- ment, organized a new three-year course of music. Previous to 1920, a domestic science course had been taught at Mansfield, but at this time a second teacher was added and the Home Management Cottage was purchased. The next year, a three-year curriculum was set-up in what was by then known as the Home Economics Department. This curriculum was lengthened in 1925 to four years. At the end of the decade, about ten persons were being graduated from the department every spring. MANSFIELD BECOMES A STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE The importance of the teacher-training institutions in Pennsylvania had increased enormously by the middle 1920 ' s. Normal schools now dotted the state. They had grown immensely in size, and the instruction and training they offered had reached the point where it was truly of college calibre. As time went on, increasing numbers of educators, Dr. Straughn of Mansfield prominent among them, were working toward having the state normal schools of Pennsylvania raised to collegiate status. Their efforts were to bear fruit. In June, 1926, the State Council of Education passed a resolution authorizing Mansfield to confer the degree of Bachelor of Science in both elementary and secondary education. This act was formalized on October 25 of that 1 year in a special ceremony in Alumni Hall. The institution also received the power to grant the Bachelor of Science degree in its two special fields, music and home economics. Due to an error in legislation, however, Mansfield re- mained a normal school for the time being. and now stood in its full magnificence. At the right are Alumni Hall (note the flagpole hanging from the tower belfry) and the old South Hall. 17