Concordia College - White and Blue Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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Opening exercises were held on Sept. 1, 1881. At this inaugural celebration the first professor, C. F. Huth, was inducted into office. How many of those who were in the audi- ence that memorable day had visions of that budding Concordia gradually unfolding into the Concordia it was soon to be? Hardly was it to be expected that this divinity school would enjoy such phenomenal growth in fame and dimensions for so many years. Already .at the ensuing Eastertide six more youths made their appearance, and the subsequent September witnessed the entrance of twenty-two more. In 1882 the three districts resolved to add another class each succeeding year for the next three years. Of course, a lone in- structor could not manage all these additional classes so it was also resolved to call a professor for each new class. The second instructor to be called to the institution was Rev. E. Hamann, who upon his acceptance of the call in 1882 took over the director- ship; the third to respond to a call was Rev. G. W. Mueller. a iT was a timely event for the speed- ily growing college when the State Dormitory was dedicated with due ceremonials on Jan. 3, 1883. The a Milwaukee Concordia could. now ,4 struggle ahead in its own quarters. But if the opinion prevailed that this structure would be large enough to house the student body for years to come, it was hap- pily erroneous. The succeeding fall term already found its rooms crowded, and what was to be done the forthcoming year? That question was settled when a frame building was put up to help shelter the one hundred and fifty youths Frame Building who filed onto the college campus in the autumn of 1884. In order to absorb all these prospective preachers the fourth class was instituted. Which naturally made it necessary to call a fourth instructor. And shortly thereafter Prof. Otto Hattstaedt, the recipient of the call, was teaching his first group of students. It soon stood to reason that a college as progressive as the three-year-old Concordia had been, required the services of a regular director, an executive who could at all times .look after the affairs of the students and of the institution in general. Such a person was readily found in Rev. Chr. H. Loeber. Now that the four classes of Sexta, Quinta, Quarta, and Tertia, for which the college was originally intended, had all been instituted, steps were taken to tack on the two classes of Secunda and Prima, the last addition neces- sary for making the students full-iledged for the Seminary. In the meantime the college was placed under the general control of Synod. In bringing this transfer about, the backers of the Milwaukee Concordia thought that Synod would add the two extra classes, very soon. Synod did not grant the addition of the classes, as had been supposed, but, unescapably, it had to meet the more urgent problem of housing the ever-growing student body. This it did by erecting the Cedar Dormitory, the rooms of which were ready for occupation before the year 088D expired. In the late eightiesY occu- pants of buggies and brough- ams driving over the unpaved streets in the western part of Milwaukee could see three buildings, one frame and two of cream-colored brick, which at the time constituted Con- cordia College. During these same years the institution looked steadily and hopefully forward to the day when Prima and Secunda would finally be added to the list of classes. This wish was par- tially fulfilled in 1890 when a new class, Secunda, could as- Cedar and State Dormitories l101

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The F irst Nineteen Years ONCORDIA College of Milwaukee has grown, is growing, and under the fa- vorable conditions of the present there is every reason to believe that it will long continue to grow. It has steadily emerged from a bare handful of stu- dents gathered in a corner of a parochial school and taught by a single in- structor, to an institution with an enrollment of about three hundred students instructed by almost a score of professors, and with buildings scattered over three city blocks. When in the seventies of the last century the huge waves of Lutheran immigrants rolled westward and gradually subsided, it became evident that the several schools bearing the common name Concordia could not sponge up the overly great number of youngsters who sought admittance into their walls. Some far-visioned Lutherans in Wisconsin and nor- thern Illinois immediately set about, therefore, to consider creating a new college of the Concordian type. Men highly prominent in this movement were Pastor Wunder of Chicago and Pastor Loeber of Milwaukee. A proposal for the much-needed college was presented to the Delegate Synod at Ft. Wayne, and was forthwith adopted. And now the dream of the greatly-to-be-wished-for preparatory college began to take on tangible outlines when a. spirited delegation of Lutherans of the Northwest declared themselves wholly in favor of the Cream City as the ideal location for the seedling Concordia. Now that the college had been granted and the place of its establishment had been chosen, matters started to move ahead at a lively rate. In the month of July, 1881, the first board of directors of Concordia College, consisting of Rev. H. WunderY Rev. C. StrasenY Rev. Chr. Loeber, and Messrs. C. Eisfeldt and J. Pritzlaff of Milwaukee, called a young graduate from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, to fill the first professorship. At the same time, the Lutherans of Milwaukee showed themselves to be more than pleased with the decision to found the new college in their city. To proceed afield: the three dis- tricts of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota were also highly enthusiastic over the found- ing of the new Concordia. They decided to prove in an inspiriting manner how they felt about it when they clicked open their pocketbooks to pile up the then fat sum of $25,000 to give the launching of the institution financial assistance. Several outstanding donations were made by Messrs. Koch, Eisfeldt, and Wollaeger. The initial opening of the college was not to be delayed unnecessarily by the usual slowness of building operations, since a room in the Trinity Lutheran Day School, which still stands on the corner of Eighth and Highland Streets, was encouragingly turned over to the Board of Control to be used as a classroom until Concordia could speak of a roof of its own. The heartful willingness of the Cream City Lutherans to render the college their services was especially noticeable when families in the vicinity of the Trinity School readily agreed to harbor the students for over a year, in parental fashion, and for a feeble fee. Announcements to the clerically ambitious were then made in the Lutheraner, where- upon thirteen lucky boys were enrolled.

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i t l t semble for its first session. Once more the enrollment began to climb. The college also received a new member on its faculty, Rev. C. Ross, to help teach the five divisions. The next year there was another spurt in the number of students on the college roster, due principally to the addition of Prima, which made ours a complete pre-theological course. Records show that the enrollment now actually soared above the two hundred mark. As need was felt for another instructor, Prof. E. G. Sihler was called to take a hand in vari- ous departments, but he remained for only one year. Hardly had he left, when his chair was occupied by Prof. G. Kroening. About this time several liberal donations of adjacent lots by Mr. J. Koch served to im- prove the college campus wonderfully. West of the buildings a new and larger ath- letic field was laid out and the grounds along Cedar Street were transformed into a highly attractive little park. At last, to the bliss of the students, the erection of the long- looked-for gymnasium was soon to provide facilities for indoor sports. 19 the early nineties a great many changes began to take place within the college neighborhood. Little by little the city crept nearer the institution. More and more homes were built all around the school limits, until the once-sequestered Concordia was locked in by a. fme residential district. The students watched this encroachment with regret, for it meant that their former freedom in roaming the nearby glens and groves would soon be at an end. In the spring of 1893, Dir. Loeber decided to resign. The presidential seat was then taken by Rev. M. J. F. Albrecht. Within the next three years considerable improvement was brought about. The rather rickety resi- dence of the Director was replaced by a com- fortable new home. No sooner had the building received its finishing touches, than a hospital was seen to go up. The rooms on the second hoot of the Cedar Dormitory, formerly a make- shift infirmary, were then converted into quar- ters for a studentsy library. Other improvements big and little were constantly being made throughout the last years of the nineteenth cen- tury. As a whole, the space of nineteen years which was closed by the birth of the twentieth century, bore all the earmarks of growth, progress, expansion. Old Hospital Twenty-Eight Years More T HILE the new century was a-borning, preparations were being rushed for the much-needed administration building. The old classrooms in the State Dorm- itory had become entirely too small for the large classes which had to be squeezed into them. Plans and preparations were ready, but it was discov- ered that the allotted Synodical funds were not elastic enough to cover the entire expense. Nevertheless, thanks to the Board of Control, an amount of seven thousand dollars was heaped up to make up the dehciency. As a re- sult there was no more delay in Opening up building operations, and on Sept. 8, 1901, the imposing tile-roofed edifice was ready for formal dedication. The new administration building, put into service exactly a score of years after the first class of Concordians had assembled in Trinity School, arose at the dawn of a new century a tit symbol of the prosperity the college was to enjoy in the forthcoming years. The highly artistic chapel and the well-arranged, well-lighted classrooms unfailingly call forth the admiration of visitors up to this very day. With the completion of this building the over-cramped conditions in the dormitories could be relieved. Now the old class- rooms in the State Dormitory were remodeled to serve as living rooms, and the old chapel in the Cedar Dormitory was made over into a spacious dining hall. The improvement gave the students not only sufficient room to stretch their legs under the tables, but also left them the old mess-hall in the basement of the State Dormitory to be used as a club- room. E111