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

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A Corner of the Campus before 1925 The next two years passed without any pronounced event. Then, in 1903, Prof. Kroen. ing resigned. His place on the faculty was accepted by Rev. C. Gaensle the frllcwing year. The teaching staff now consisted of seven members given in the order of their electionl Professor Huth, Hamann, Mueller, Hattstaedt, Ross, Albrecht, and Gaensle. Another three years slipped by. And then came the year 1906, bringing with it a special meaning for Concordia. This was the year in which she could celebrate her first important anniversary, her twenty-flfth birthday. It was a time of much rejoicing. Re- cords made clear the fact that the college had already sprinkled the world with five hun- dred young ministers of the Gospel. The jubilee services were held on the seventeenth of June. In the afternoon of that outstanding day, thousands from far and near were wedged together upon the campus, and in that shoulder-rubbing throng there were many hearty handclasps between old-time classmates meeting one another for the first time in years. That same evening more than two hundred graduates held a banquet for the sake of the good old times when.... . With emotions bubbling over, the gay companions and yokefellows of college days parted once more, to be scattered throughout the country again. They took with them the pleasantest of memories, and left behind them the sug- gestion for organizing an alumni association so that connections with their Alma Mater would not be entirely severed. In the last years their suggestion has been acted upon, and it is hoped that the alumni association will soon be an effectual body. In the march of events Concordia now seemed to be going double-time. synodical adherents began to acknowledge its importance more and more. Which was proved by word and gift alike. Messrs. Luedtke and F. Pritzlaff, for example, were the donors of a piece of property on the northeast corner of Thirty-third and Cedar Streets. In con- sequence of this the campus was stretched out considerably, and the gymnasium was moved upon the new ground. Then, to make room for a larger athletic field, the Di- rectorls residence was moved to the corner of Thirty-first and State Streets. HE next event worthy of special mention happened in May, 1910, when Prof. E. Hamann resigned on account of increasing deaf. ness. This resignation in- flicted the first breach up- cn the old faculty phalanx Moreover, it seemed to inaugurate a process of rejuvenation which has gone on in the faculty ever since. Prof. A. Bergmann invested the professional robe doifed by Prof. Hamann. Immediately there- after, Prof. C. Homann, was installed. Also a number of assistant professors Wander Dormitory E121

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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

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came and went in the following ten years, though it was not until the year 1921, when Dr. Gaensle decided to quit teaching at Concordia, that anything of more exceptional noteworthiness took place. What the college may have fallen behind in during the last yearsyof the bygone decade, it more than made up in the early twenties, and events have been chasing one another in rapid succession up to the time of this writing. The duties of chief executive were shifted to the shoulders of Rev. G. Chr. Barth, who was called from St. Lukeis congrega- tion, St. Louis. This was done shortly after Dir. Albrecht gave up his office as president and accepted a professorship in the late fall of the year '21. The next spring the va- cancy left by Dr. Gaensle was filled by Prof. M. Graebner. Towards the close of the second year of Director Barthis administration an epidemic of scarlet fever thrust its tentacles into the student body. The college doctor at the time advised that the school close down before the dread disease would prove fatal to the closely crowded students. Though the admonition was heeded without hesitation and the term was brought to a close on May 22, 1923, Ottomar Zersen, a member of the class of '28, was carried off by death soon after his fellowstudents had left for home. tThe class of 128 inserts this as a memorial to their departed friendJ The following autumn brought a great many more newcomers than usual, in spite of the dampening effect of the late epidemic. Thus a pressing need was felt for more instructors, and that same fall Prof. P. Koehneke was called, followed by Prof. P. Zanow the next spring. About this time the dormitories in which the boys of Concordia had lived for forty years, showed signs of an old age, a prema- ture old age perhaps. Due to the cramped conditions the rooms fairly bulged with stud- ents and their belongings. Besides, it was feared that this situation might invite ill- health, and likewise encourage laxity in good scholarship. Many students had to sleep in low, draughty attics or in other improvised bedrooms, just as coopy. Something had to be done within a very short time. Relief was finally in sight when Synod allotted enough funds to begin building operations. On June 4, 1924, during a special service, ground was broken for the Wunder Dormitory. In April of 1925, when the dedicatory ceremonies took place, Lutherans tiocked from miles about to instect the splendid new dormitory with its twenty-tive two-room suites of four desks, four beds, and four wardrobes, the Director's headquarters, the reception and Board room, the stationery; they came to inspect the ter- razzo floors of the halls, the batleship linoleum of the rooms, the oak woodwork, things never seen inside Concordiais walls before; they came to participate in a happy celebration of another landmark in the progress of this insitution. Excavating for Refectory 7x URING the summer of 1925 the old frame building which had housed the - kitchen and the living quarters for the workers, passed out of eyesight and history. Also the old brick hospital, yellowing with age, was moved away to make room for the further constructional processes of which the college was woefully in need. By the time the students returned from the Christ- mas holidays of 1925-26 a new building, the Refectory, could be formally opened. The roomy, sunny dining hall with its oaken tables and chairs, snowy table-cloths and shiny chinaware,-all new-was an immeasurable improvement over the aged and dingy mess-hall where the aisles between the sixteen-foot, wobbly tables had narrowed down to mere slits. The new, highly improved kitchen made it possible for the matron to serve meals on an efficient basis. On the second iioor, the cozy comfortableness of the hospital gave every visitor and student the impression that henceforth a furlough spent in the sick room would not be regretted at all even if one was sick. In fact, the addition of the Wunder Dormitory and the Refectory made life at Concordia so much more attractive that the list of newcomers in September, 1925, was appreciably lengthened.