Cogswell Polytechnical College - Cogswell Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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THE cooswsms 99 iKvrPni fdmprnuvmenfa The laying out of the boys' athletic field and the girls' tennis and basketball courts is now rapidly nearing completion and the members of the Cogswell Student Body are eagerly looking forward to the time when they may invite other high school students to participate in the various athletic events already being scheduled to take place on the new grounds. The new athletic field has a frontage of two hundred and ninety-seven feet on Army street with a width of about one hundred and eighty feet, and the boys, anticipating the time when the field will be ready for use, have made a field plan including a baseball diamond and a one-quarter mile cinder path with provisions for other field sports. Plans for handball courts are being made but the location will depend upon the final arrangements of the field plan. A concrete retaining wall surmounted by an artistic seven-foot iron fence surrounds the grounds on the street boundaries. On the site extending 140 feet north of the new field it is planned to erect a new building to include the industrial and science departments for boys. In the basement of the new building will be the lockers, showers, etc., to accommodate the athletes. just opposite the boys' field on the newly acquired northeast corner of Fol- som and Army streets are the girls' outdoor recreation grounds, in which will be a basketball court and two tennis courts. The paving of the tennis courts has been considerably delayed by the heavy rains which caused the filled-in ground to become too soft for the heavy roller to be used in preparing the sub-base for the paving. . The girls themselves are planning to beautify their new grounds by border- ing the field with masses of bright flowers and evergreen shrubs.

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98 THE COGSWELL Ilinunhvra' Bag Exerrimea On Friday afternoon, March 13, 1914, all classes were dismissed at 2:15 for the purpose of observing the annual Founders' Day SXCYCISCS, WUC1 Were held in the school auditorium. President Robert Duncan .of the Student Body presided and, wishing to acquaint the students, their relatlvesiand friends With the early history of the school and the plans and purposes of its founders, read the following account of the meeting of Dr. Cogswell with the first Board of Trustees and his address to them when presenting the deed of trust conveying the property which has served to build and maintain the school: PRELIMINARY MEETING. Moses Hopkins, Charles B. Stone, Thomas B. Bishop, Mary E. Arnold and james G. Kennedy were invited to meet Dr. H. D. Cogswell and Caroline E. Cogswell at the office of Thomas B. Bishop in the city of San -Francisco at 12 o'clock noon on the nineteenth day of March, 1887. The time. having arrived and all being present, except Moses Hopkins, Dr. H. D. Cogswell addressed those present as follows: 'Ladies and Gentlemen: We have invited you to be present to-day to assist us in taking what seems to us a very important step in the educational history of this state. It is no less a step than the founding of a polytechnical college for the purpose of affording the boys and girls of the state a practical training in the different industries, a thorough knowledge of which is necessary to success in life. 'The education that does not prepare one to intelligently direct his labor is not worthy of a moment's consideration. VVe are sorry to say but little effort is made in our present system of education to prepare children to use their knowl- edge in assisting them to gain a livelihood. Most of our boys and girls have no occupation and are not fit for one when they leave school. They have learn- ing but no capacity. The time has come when all this should be changed. The new education demanded by the necessities of the nineteenth century calls for the training of the eyes and the hand, and stamps it as being just as important as the study of grammar, geography, arithmetic and other kindred studies. 'Educated working men and women are necessary to solve the great labor problems that will arise in the future. For the purposes of this education there 1S room and need for technical schools in all quarters of our country. 'Mental industry can exist only along with physical industry, hence the true school should give both mental and physical culture. 'I 'For-the purpose then of providing the boys and girls of the state a thor- ough training in mechanical arts and other industries we have made the grant, as set forth in these papers, providing for the founding and maintaining of the Cogswell Polytechnic College. I present them to you, believing that you will faithfully execute your trust to the best of your abilityf Atuthe conclusion of the reading of this paper the SCI-1001 Orchestra favofed the audience. with the Gold and Silver W'altz,', which received hearty applause. . Miller, our president, made a few remarks, chiefiy concerning the immediate and future improvements of the school, which are being accomplished through the generosity of the Board of Trustees.

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