Annie Wright School - Shield Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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© Z7 i5= MSw- L i ® What was if like at the Seminary those first years? Of our frugal fare most vivid to me is lunch time. Down to the dining room (in the basement) we marched two by two. A teacher, stern or otherwise presided at each end of the long tables, the pupils ranged along the sides. On Mondays we had cocoa and crackers; on Tuesdays honey and hot rolls: on Wednesdays cocoa and crackers: on Thursdays honey and hot rolls: on Fridays fish. We loved the honey days and wished for more always. From the first catalogue we read: For board, furnished room, tuition in English branches and Latin, and laundry service, $350 a year. Among the Extras-Optional is listed: Classes in decoration on china, plush, velvet, etc. (We loved painting with Miss Fullick and got a real kick from her trilly laugh!) I remember that I painted for myself a spray of trailing arbutus on a sky blue satin ribbon bow for my back comb. Every five weeks came a Musical Review (not spelled Revue in those mid-Victorian days!) hHowever, to the musicale in which I took part, I wore my lovely party bow and sang (though never on the key) that lovely song Good- bye Summer. It was a memorable Review being my first and last appearance as a coloratura. On Sundays we marched down C Street (with its sidewalk of two boards laid lengthwise), to beautiful little St. Luke ' s Church, of which Rev. Lemuel H. Wells was the rector, as well as our beloved school Chaplain. Sunday evenings we walked the two planks again, lighting our way with kerosene lanterns. But it was fun slipping off the sidewalk into the mud and holding up the whole brigade, the while we extricated our feet from our overshoes and our overshoes from the mire. Note this announcement in the first catalogue: The School has received a gift of dumb-bells. This will add to the efficiency of the School. (Be it said for the benefit of the grand-daughters of the Old Girls that the modern use of the term dumb-bell was unknown in the eighties!) I quote General Regulations No. 2: €ach boarding pupil should be provided with a comb, brush, tooth-brush, a waterproof cloak, an umbrella, a pair of overshoes, a napkin ring, a clothes bag. two yards of carpet or a rug for her room and a colored skirt. Let no modern Miss misjudge and infer from this that the mid-Victorian girls wore extreme decollete. Let it be known that your grandmothers wore dress skirts, over the colored underskirts, reaching to the floor, and high neck basques with high neck collars, boned. If you please! Today, A. D. 1931, a beautiful Wing of the beautiful new Annie Wright Seminary is called Paddock Hall In honor of Its founder. The Wing Includes the Dining Hall and the Infirmary. It brings to mind the love the homesick qlrls bore him. It was the Bishop ' s habit to say to them If you were never homesick I should be afraid you did not have a happy home. Gentle as woman ' s was his manly soul — The form, the face, a sympathizing whole. The cheery word that lighted up their board — A kindred spirit rich with friendship stored. L ' ENVOI Her founder, vision-hearted and in saintly cheer Marched, the missionary chief and pioneer: Clear lay the way he needs must tread in duty ' s right, Lo! His sword — the Spirit — now damascened with light! February. 1931. Fannie Paddock Hinsdale. Page nin«

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luxe boasted no dining car. In lieu of a diner there appeared a man — three times a day — garbed in butcher ' s apron, striding down the station platform, clanging a colossal brass dinner bell. Hunger, tinged with terror, sent the passengers scamper- ing after him, where, at the restaurant counter they grabbed a sandwich and gulped a cup of coffee, whilst in stentorian tones they cauqht the cry All aboard! all aboard! In seven days from San FranciSco, New York was reached. Then began an over- whelming experience in the welcome of life-long friends, who, a year before, had bidden God-speed to the new Bishop and Mrs. Paddock and their five children. But the Bishop and his children returned alone! The great helpmate of his life and work, taken ill on the journey to the far west, died at Portland, Oregon, just within sight of the new home. The bereaved Bishop and his children entered Washington Terri- tory bearing the body of her whose vision had led them through al ' the hardships of the adventure with undaunted enthusiasm and inspiration. The hearts of old friends were tender in their Welcome Home and congrega tions listened with responsive interest to the Bishop ' s appeal. Months of hard labor followed and the Bishop returned to Tacoma having succeeded in raising the major portion of the required fund. Plans were set on foot for the building of the girls ' school; a Board of Trustees was appointed to take charge of the erection of the building. The Tacoma Land Company gave the Bishop the choice of two or three building sites, and the beautiful lots on Tacoma Avenue bordered by Division Avenue and North First Street were chosen. Occasional criticism was heard from the people of Old Tacoma and New Tacoma: It is a fine site. Bishop, but isn ' t it a mistake to build a school halfway between two towns? At the close of that summer the Bishop returned to the East to beg for the rest of the money. This he accomplished, but his happiness was short-lived. Arriving in Tacoma he found that the contractor had failed and absconded, leaving the building only half done. Only one road opened: he must retrace his weary way and return to the East for a final effort. Though heart-sick and broken and sore, yet holding his eyes to the goal, he went forth again; but the strain was too great for his sapped strength and after once again reaching the goal, he broke down and for several months nervous prostration laid him low at the home of his brother, the Bishop of Massachusetts, in Boston. A happy day dawned in the summer of 1884. The School for Girls was a visible fact with its imposing turrets, its impressive portals (Principal ' s-Pupils ' and Patrons ' ), its myriad windows from which to view the scenery (and the passers-by). There it stood, on an eminence, between the two towns looking out on Puget Sound and its mud flats, the picturesque little Puyallup. and up to the Mountain that was God. For the name of the school the Bishop decided to compliment Mr. Charles B. Wright and call it The Annie Wright Seminary in honor of Mr. Wright ' s daughter. To the Annie Wright in its first year, came 94 girls from more than a dozen points in Washington Territory, as follows: New Tacoma and Old Tacoma. Ainsworth, Fort Spokane. La Conner. Damon. Port Townsend. Chehalis. Olympla. Fort Stellacoom, and Stellacoom. Whatcom, Tulallp, Walla Walla. Carbonado and Puyallup. Oregon was represented by a girl from far away little Canyon City, and British Columbia by two sisters (and a little brother) from Victoria. Would that I might dwell on the rare personnel of the first faculty of ten members. It was they who laid the firm foundations in the building not made with hands. Page eiqKf

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1884 In 1884 Bishop Paddock asked me fo come and take charge or b t. Luke ' s Church which had been built about a year, and by the death of Mr. Bonnell had become vacant. He also asked Mrs. Wells, who had been very successful as principal of St. Paul ' s School. Walla Walla, to be principal of the Annie Wright Seminary. At his request, Mrs. Wells sketched some plans which an architect put into shape and when we arrived in June, 1884. the building was almost completed. The first night we stopped at the old Tourist Hotel, Tacoma was young and crude then. The next morning I asked if the street cars ran near the Annie Wright Seminary. There are no street cars, they said. Well, then send for a cab. There are no cabs, he replied. Get me a horse and buggy then. The livery stables haven ' t any. but you might get an express wagon to take you up there. So we called an express wagon and they brought out a chair and helped Mrs. Wells up on the seat with the driver. I climbed up and stood holding on to the back of the seat and away we went. In a few days we were able to move into the incompleted building, but by September 1st everything was ready — furniture, books, provisions, teachers, ser- vants, curriculum and pupils, and we started the school. One girl came from Alaska in a wagon train and was nearly a month on the way. camping out at night. Two girls came from the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the girls had never been taught to say their prayers: some, when sleepy, would get into bed partly dressed. So the teach- ers had to make a round of the rooms every night to see that all was right. But most of the girls were nice and well-behaved. The school opened with a small attendance, but grew rapidly and soon was full to overflowing, so that we had to put cots at the ends of the halls and every other available space. We had excellent teachers, but Mrs. Raynor was the most popular of all with every girl in the school. LEMUEL H. WELLS. First Bishop of Spokane (retired). 1888 As if it were but yesterday, I remember the first time the door of the Annie Wright Seminary opened to me. It was forty-three years ago. We had newly arrived in Tacoma. My father and mother, after due inquiry, had decided that the Seminary was suitable for me. The question was. was I suitable for the Seminary? To determine this, one day in early May, only a day or so after our arrival — this was In 1888 — my father took me to interview the principal, then Mrs. Lemuel Wells. Youth is exquisitely sensitive to impressions. The whole incident Is etched on my mind as clearly and as vividly as at that time of happening. The ride there in the Tacoma Avenue horse-car. The careful picking of our way across mud-caked Tacoma Avenue. Our pause as we reached the wide wooden side-wa ' lf : rounded the triangle at Division and First where stood the school. So that was it! Standing decorously back from the street, like a neat, ana brd . lady, tall, erect, the delicacy of young, new vines softening its severity like lace at the throat of an aristocrat. Its square, spired towers crowning It like a many-pointed cap. Its porches and steps extending in dignified and conservative Invitation. Page fen