Mansfield University - Carontawan Yearbook (Mansfield, PA)

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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

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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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Dr. William R. Straughn came to the Normal School as principal in 1914. It was during his administration that Mansfield became the first state teachers college in Penn- sylvania. Here is Dr. Straughn (first row. sixth from left I in one of his early pictures with the Normal School faculty. 18 The following year on May 13, 1927, an event occurred that was historic not only for Mansfield but for the entire system of public education in Pennsylvania. On that day Mansfield became the first institution in the state to be designated as a state teachers college. Thus began the transformation that was soon to raise all of Pennsvl- vania ' s fourteen state-owned teacher-training institutions to college rank. Mansfield, whose Music Department was the oldest of its type in the state, was the first state teachers college in Pennsylvania to grant a degree in music education . In the fall of 1928, the three-year course of study was replaced by a new four-year course. The Home Economics Department also continued to develop. In 1933, the Federal Board of Vocational Educa- tion approved the college as a vocational home economics training center and granted financial aid. Dr. Straughn, as it turned out, was the last principal Mansfield was to have. Soon after the Normal School be- came a college, he became known as the president. In 1927. after six years on one floor of Alumni Hall, the junior high school had moved into a new building. This large brick structure remains as today ' s Campus Junior High School. About that time, a temporary wooden Science Building (the Lab ) was erected on the site of the present brick building. It remained for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1929, the Alumni Hall auditorium was abandoned. College programs were held in the old gymnasium for the next year. Plans were soon made for a fine modern auditorium and work got underway. The new building was completed by the late summer of 1930. More than one thousand students, teachers, parents, and guests attended the dedicatory- exercises in October. On December 18, 1930, a special program was presented in the auditorium. W. W. Allen, chairman of the Board of Trustees, spoke during the course of the program and revealed to President Straughn that as a lasting tribute to him the auditorium would henceforth be known as Straughn Hall. Improvements in the physical property of Mansfield under Dr. Straughn were not confined to the large buildings. Also constructed since 1914 were the heating plant, infirmary, Y Hut and president ' s home. The old gymnasium was enlarged and the tennis courts and bowling alleys were provided. During William R. Straughn ' s administration, a large number of men and women joined the faculty at Mans- field and remained for many years to become familiar and well-loved figures on the campus and in the community. Some, indeed, were here until a short time ago, while a few are still on the faculty today. Those whose names can no longer be found on the faculty rolls at Mansfield include Arthur T. Belknap. John W. Cure, Miss Stella Doane, Isaac Doughton. Herbert E. Manser, Herbert Grant, Edward C. Russell, George B. Strait, Irving T. Chatterton. Will George Butler, Mrs. Grace Steadman, Miss Cora Atwater. and Miss Margaret O ' Brien. There are others whose as- sociation with the college stems from their positions in the campus schools. These include George A. Retan. Myron E. Webster. Hugh W. Alger. Miss Dorthy Hutchinson, and Miss Jessie Grigsby. Two teachers who were on the faculty before, during, and after Dr. Straughn ' s administration were Miss Alice Doane and George W. Cass. In the middle 1930 ' s, Dr. Straughn ' s health began to fail. Nevertheless, he continued to take part in the regular activities of the college. As a matter of fact, Dr. Straughn participated as usual in the spring commencement exer- cises of 1936. That summer, however, his condition grew worse. On August 21, before the fall reopening of the college, he died. Mansfield was shocked and saddened by William R. Straughn ' s untimely death at the age of fifty-four. He had