Brigham Young University - Banyan Yearbook (Provo, UT)

Page 18 text:

.Msda 1. j . X— aiUBiii iHa ' ' .»5 m i for it was here on the night of January 24, 1884, that the first home of our beloved institution caught fire and burned to the ground. But I anticipate my story. The owners had no sooner completed this excellent commercial block, than they discovered it to be the proverbial white elephant on their hands. It was by reason of this fact that Brigham Young found occasion to pur- chase the property. And so it happened that by a deed of trust, executed October 16, 1875, he found- ed the Brigham Young Academy. A pie- liminary session had already been held the previous year, with Messrs. Warren N. and Wilson H. Dusenberry, two young college- bred men recently from the East, as teach- ers; they were succeeded in the spring by Dr. Karl G. Maeser. But the academic year is reckoned from August 25, 1875, when the school was formally opened, the dedicatory prayer having been offered by President Daniel H. Wells. The enrollment increased so that during the fourth year the average attendance was about 250; but in the years following it grew to 350; and during one year to 400. This in- crease lead A. O. Smoot, President of the board, to build two additions, one on the north and one on the east, thus furnishing four new class rooms. The school had grown very rapidly, and was rejoicing in its new found opportunities, when the great fire came. That was a momentous episode, not only for the four hundred students in attendance, but for the entire city. About midnight of January 24, 1884, the flames burst through the roof, startling the neighborhood. The lurid glare lit up the snow for blocks around. The meeting house bell clamored out the terrifying news, and soon bucket brigades were formed; but the flames had gained too much headway, and fed by the keen frosty air, they made a most magnificent pyrotechnic display. Nor was there ever a more fascinated audience than that made up of the saddened faces upturned to this funeral pyre of their Alma Mater. [10] The Z. C. M. I. Building

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Homes of the School N historical sketch of the Brigham Young University takes the reader back to a time when Provo was a country village. The city is not yet completely urban- ized? for the meek-eyed cow still pays the land-tax, even on our fine cement side-walks. But in 1875, and even for a decade thereafter, the threshing ma- chine hummed on more than one spot where now clicks the typewriter, and the old-fashioned horse power cumbered Main street at many a front gate, for brief intervals. the preeminence which Provo is destined to at- a swift growth of the city, built a structure Nevertheless, men foresaw even then tain. One man in particular, believing which must have surprised and delighted the sturdy pioneers, and encouraged them to shed their log cabins and put on adobe. The Lewis block, for so it was called, occu- pied the ground now partly covered by the Farmers ' and Merchants ' bank. It abut- ted on the sidewalk, and consisted of two long store-rooms below, with office rooms at the back, and a public hall above. Di- rectly over the two offices was a stage which was elevated four feet above the main upper floor. Three feet more had been taken from the height of the ceiling in the offices below; and the space thus cre- ated midway between the ground and the roof, made room for actors to drown or hoist ore, or be hurled down rocky preci- pices, to soft bed-springs below. This cellar in mid-air is of historic significance, in The Lewis Block [9]

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All the city had been aroused, and next morning the students were moving everywhere about the smoking embers. There seemed to be no note of hope left in the subdued conversa- tion of the little groups here and there. The only question seemed to be how soon they could get ready to start for home. Presently Brother Maeser, whose white hair and dignified bearing had already made him venerable, mounted a chair, and called the crowd to order. There was hope shining out in his fine, strong face and courage in the ring of his voice. Bidding the students not to lose heart, he invited them all to a meeting in the Stake tabernacle. Here the lesson of the fire was impressed upon us? and we were told, not only that the school would go on, but that steps had already been taken to erect new and suitable quarters. Events moved rapidly that day? President Smoot had just completed the bank building on the corner of Academy avenue and Center street? and although the First National Bank corporation, the Smoot Drug Company, and various office renters, were ready and eager to move in, the grand old man moved them all off, to give a free home to the homeless school. By the following morning black-boards had been made and placed in the walls, and desks and benches filled all the rooms. That the institution should, in the face of so overwhelming a calamity, lose only one day of regular work, was al- ways thereafter a source of tender pride to its first great teacher. But the bank building proved inade- quate for more than the normal, academic, and commercial departments. It became a question, therefore, whether or not to discontinue the grades. At this point an- other public-spirited gentleman came to the rescue. Mr. L. L. Jones had just com- pleted a new store on the site now occupied by the Piovo Meat Packing Co., and here the rest of the school found shelter? the intermediate departments below, the prim- ary and preparatory above. As is well known Dr. Maeser had not only to develop the school itself? he had The mgh school Buiming [11]