Armour Institute of Technology - Cycle Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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• The History of the Armour Institute of Technology dates back only to Sept. 14, 1893, when its doors were first opened to students. For several years preceding, however, Mr. Armour had been planning in his mind an institution of its character which would be within the reach of Western boys and girls, and give them the means of acquiring a practical education. Mr. Armour is believed to have gained his inspi- ration from the mission which his brother, Joseph F. Armour, endowed in 1881 with a bequest of $100,000. This bequest was given in charge of Mr. Armour, and the work, which be- gan in a building at 31st and State streets, in 1874, was at once enlarged with the erection of the handsome Armour Mission, and an invitation given to the Plymouth Mission Sunday School to make its home therein. The effect of the Mission upon the neighborhood of Armour Avenue and 33rd streets was so marked that Mr. Armour was led to erect the buildings knwon as the Armour Flats. These apartments drew a better class of people to the vicinity of the Mission, and a school was planned which would give to boys and girls a practical industrial training at a nominal cost. The original plan, which partook more of the manual training school idea, soon developed into the Technological Institute as it stands today. Preparatory to the working out of the scheme, Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus, then pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, was made President of the Institute in December, 1892. Dr. Gunsaulus drew about him the original faculty who elaborated the first years work. The original plan of the Institute included some higher technical training, but its scope was not at first precisely defined. The importance to the community of this branch of education was strenuously urged by persons whose opinions were worth considering, and whose opinions were re-enforced by many applications for extended courses in engineering, which were received as soon as the purposes of the Institute became known. Mr. Armour and Dr. Gunsaulus made a trip to Eastern schools to see for themselves the workings of the most prominent technicals chools, and found in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology its model. Accordingly, full four year courses were planned, and in 1895, after the Insti- tute had been in successful operation for two years, its corporate name was changed by an act of the legislature, from Armour Institute to Armour Institute of Tech- nology, in harmony with the advanced ideas of its founder. Early in 1893 a union was effected with the Art Institute of Chicago, for the purpose of developing the course in architecture, which that Institute had successfully maintained since 1889. The result was the establishment of the Chicago School of Architecture which also constitutes the Department of Architecture of the Armour Institute of Technology. 16

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