Elmira Free Academy - Torch / Sagoyawatha Yearbook (Elmira, NY)

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CHAPTER VII. PRIN. LOVELL'S ADMINISTRATION, 1887-1895. Prin. Monks was succeeded by Mr. 1887 Herbert M. Lovell, a Comell graduate. He did not adhere to all the traditions of the school. Teachers now took charge of the study room, but students were still allowed more liberties than in many High Schools. His first Commencement, june 28, 1888, 1333 was held in the evening in the Lyceum theatre. Thereafter all Commencement exercises were in the Lyceum until 1904, when the burning of the theatre made it necessary to find another place. Only the classes of '88 and '89 held their exercises in the evening. At the Reunion, june 29, 1888, an 1338 Alumni Association was, for the first time, established. Officers elected for '88-'89 were as follows: Pres. john B. Stanchfield 1st Vice-Pres. Dr. Henry Flood 2nd Vice-Pres. Boyd McDowell 3rd Vice-Pres. Henry Redfield Cor. Sec'y. Harry N. Hoffman Rec. Sec'y. Frances D. Guion Treas. David M. Pratt. An Alumni Association was a highly desirable organization, but this one did nothing but elect officers. The following year, at Reunion, the second election was held, resulting as follows: Pres. George Hull 1st Vice-Pres. B. S. Chamberlin 2nd Vice-Pres. Harry N. Hoffman 3rd Vice-Pres. W. C. Peebles Cor. Sec'y. William C. White Rec. Sec'y. Frances D. Guion Treas. Theodore M. McKnight. Again 110 definite work was accomplishedby the association. At the Reunion in 1890, at which jacob Schwartz, the brilliant lawyer, had given an address on A Modern Problem, the ballot resulted as follows: Pres. Jacob Schwartz ' Vice-Pres. Boyd McDowell Sec'y. Mrs. Theodora Norton Joerg Treas. M. Louise Godfrey. President Schwartz appointed the following executive committee, H. C. Mandeville, George McCann, A. Welling Wyckoff, Mrs. Chas. Roach, Mary E. Eaton. President Schwartz died before the next june Reunion, and no effort was made to keep up the organization, so the officers elected in '90 never had successors until 1909, when the association reorganized. In the fall of '88, the growth of the school necessitated a distinct English department. 1888 Previously it had been ccmbined with the history. The faculty was increased by an En lish teacher to take exclusive charge of the new department. Some idea of the later growth of the English department may be gathered from the fact that to-day there are four teachers devoting their entire time and four others giving half of their time or more to English. In that year, '88-'89, all students were required to take the regents' examinations in all Academic subjects. For some time previous, it had been optional. From '89'to the present, the regents' examinations in allsubjects have been required. At first, students were graduated on a local mark obtained by averaging regents' marks and class standing, but later, the regents' diploma was necessary to obtaining the Academy diploma. In '89 the Lyceum literary society died out. The same year the Athanaeum Debating 1889 Club was formed as a rival to the Adelphics. It flourished until 1892, when it united with the Adelphics under the latter name, as the Sophomore Adelphics and the Sumnerfea mixed club- Q had done before. There was at this time another club, known as the Elmira Free Academy Scientific Society, which continued through 'i9. No records of its organization are accessible, though mention of it is found in '88. ' In May of 1889, Arbor Day was celebrated. 'Ihis was not, in the Academy, observed every year. A few yearsglater its annual observance was establishedkand during Mr. Evans's I w.2ff,1'?ff9-

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1 , uni: 5 - in w' S. Ji I if N 1875 In the fall of 1875, Miss S. Cornelia Norman joined the Academy faculty. She had previously 1878 1878 1878 1880 1887 been teaching in School No. 1. The coming and going of all teachers of the school it would be im- possible to chronicle, but Miss Norman was no ordinary teacher and her advent is worthy of notice. In June 1878, appeared the first number of the HE. F. A. Record, an eight page paper of considerable interest. Frank Fishler was its first editor. It was published semi-annually at first, the second number coming out December 19, 1678, the Commencement day of the only Christ- mas Class in the history ot the school. In the Personal column one item reads: Our alumni list records six M. D's. That number has been many times multiplied since. The Record be- came an annual later, but its career was compara- tively short. The June Class of '78 was the only one to be graduated on the four years' course established in 1874. It was the Hrst class to hold its Commence- ment exercises outside of the Free Academy build- ing. Park Church was the place chosen. Com- mencements continued to be held in various churches from that date until 1888, when the Lyceum theatre was secured. A December 19, 1878, the Christmas Class of '78 was graduated. This was a unique Com- mencement, the only winter graduation in Academ- ' ' ic history. The decision to return to a three years' general course made it necessary to reduce the number of classes, and the Christmas Class therefore stands alone as the one class graduated onia three-and-a-half years' course. Their Commencement took place at the First M. E. Church. june 21, 1880, some students of the Academy, whose names did not appear upon the paper ---perhaps wisely published a paper called The Mirror, a four-page sheet containing caustic criticisms of the management of E. F. A. and decidedly personal roasts upon some members of the faculty. The editors, in two paragraphs in different parts of the paper, took pains to except Misses Norman and Nelson of the faculty from any adverse criticism. The student body,as a whole, did not approve the tone of The Mirror and the nature of its reflec- tions. Naturally the faculty disapproved. Hence it became another illustration of the first shall be last. On the same day, the UE. F. A. Record for the year came out. Its editors that year were William E. V. Kemp and Cassius I-Iibbard. Its tone was very different from that of its rival. . For the first years of the eighties there seem few distinctive events to chronicle. Prin- Monks's methods were fully established and the machinery of the system moved smoothly- The retirement of Prin. Monks, in June 1887, was a cause of deep regret to the school and alumni. His infiuence in the school had been a particularly happy one. All students had a profound respect for his intellectual attainments and for his opinions. His bearing was dignified, but gracious, and his manners polished. In his students, also, he tolerated no manners but those of ladies and gentlemen, and he inculcated these more by example than by precept. Seldom did he speak severely, but on the rare occasions when it was necessary, the few in- cisive words of scorn with which he scored an ill-bred act made the offender shrivel into a pygmy in his own eyes as well as in those of his schoolmates. No such babyish tricks as char- acterize students of some High Schools were ever seen in E. F. A. during his administration, although the average age of students was about the same here as elsewhere, and then as now. His leaving was a serious loss to the school and marked the passing of the old regime. I

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1 889 1890 1891 1891 1892 1892 1892 1892 - mffeexmvex-e4va,y1g 1 - Y administration the entire charge of the celebration was placed in the hands of the Senior Class. The custom still obtains. On the evening of May 17th, the Class of '89 held its Class Day exercises. The pro- gram, consisting of class history, prophecy, and the like, was given in the chapel, the ban uet followed in the Debating Club room. Until 1892,'tl1b same arrangement prevailed, the Ctlass Day being always in May. December 19, 1890, marks the organization of the first chaptered secret society in E. F. A.- Alpha Zeta. This was largely due to the efforts of Fred F. jewett, Leon T. Lewald, Henry B. Van Duzer, and the Gamma Chapter of Binghamtom. Eleven members resigned from the Adelphics to become charter members of the Epsilon chapter of Alpha Zeta. The first year, the society met in the Academy building. During the erection of the new Academy the follow- ing year, clubrooms were secured in the Robinson Building. Now the clubhouse is the former Bryant Hall. May 13, 1891, Elmira College, through its president, Dr. Chas. Van Norden, offered an Elmira College scholarship to the E. F. A. girl that had had the highest rank in scholarship during her course and was prepared to enter college in the fall. This scholarship was to be given each year thereafter. No one was ready to take it that year, as the Academic course was three years and four would be necessary for college preparation. Several members of the Class of '91 took post-graduate work the next year, and Mary Olive Bullard, Valedictorian of '91, was the first to earn this scholarship honor, in '92. Since then, every year this honor has been earned by an Academy girl, the last one being Helen E. Manning, 1908. In the summer of 1891, the Academy building was torn down to make room for a com- modious modern structure. School for the year opened in the old No. 6 School building on Lake Street,'just south of the D.L. QW. tracks. The building was in poor repair and ill-adapted to the use of the school, but the best available. It was overrun with huge rats, bold enough to come out during afternoon recitations and ransack waste baskets standing close by a teacher's desk, to secure food left by students bringing luncheon. School work was of necessity reduced to its lowest terms for lack of conveniences. As many students as possible arranged to have all their recitations in a half day and studied at home. Yet, despite the handicap, fairly credit- able results were obtained. December 29, 1891, the Christmas Reunion was held in the Masonic Temple, --fthe first to be held in any other place than the Academy building. The Senior Class had charge of it and made it a great success. Dancing was introduced as a feature of the evening, since the Masonic rooms offered accomodations. On April 1, 1892, the Adelphia Sorority, the second chaptered society of E., F. A., was formed. Miss Mary 0. Bullard started it at the suggestion of Miss Grace Collin of the Alpha chapter in Ithaca. Miss Collin is a niece of Pres. Collin of the Elmira Board of Education. Elmira, with twelve charter members, became the second or Beta chapter. Meetings were held afternoons after school at the school building until within the past two years. Now the Adelphia girls hold their meetings, quite appropriately, in the Women's Federation Building where they are allowed use of the Director's room. A large number of the E. F. A. faculty are honorary members of the sorority, which is scarcely a secret organization, at least in any objectionable sense of the term. The society has a paper called the Beta Siftings. For several years Beta held a banner given by Ithaca for the best literary work. The Class Day exercises of '92 H a class without a school home were held May 27th at the home of Miss Lena Schornstheimer, a member of the class. It proved a very happy arrangement, and thanks to the hospitality of the Schornstheimers, the occasion lacked none of the pleasurable features of former Class Days. The Reunion, on June 24th, was again held in the Masonic Temple. The program was an interesting one, the cream of the entertainment being the address of the Hon. J. Sloat Fassett. No one realized that this, the thirtieth anniversary of the first Reunion, would be the last june Reunion, but had it been forseen, nothing better than Mr. Fassett's speech could have been planned for a grand finale. The new building was not opened with formal cermonies. Indeed it was hardly ready for occupancy when the first day of the fall term arrived. The opening week of school was cold and rainy, and as the heating apparatus had not yet been installed and the plaster was none too dry, the temperature of the bui ding reminded one of a vault. Nearly the entire school took severe colds. The building as compared with the former one, seemed to cover a large area, yet, as it had but two stories to the other's three, it was not so much larger as it seemed. Prin. Lovell had urged making more extensive accomodations, but was told that they seemed to be enclosing all out doors, as it was. Yet in four years the school had out grown the building. Architecturally the structure would have been improved by a third storyg but so much travel up and down stairs had been an objection to the three-story plan of the old building, so this was made two. The desirability of an assembly room on the third fioor where the entire school might congregate at times, seems not to have appealed to the authorities in charge of the construction, yet the lack of such a room has been a distinct drawback to school manage- ment and school spirit. As the building is still standing, no detailed description of it will be necessary, yet it may not be amiss to speak of some rooms that have since been turned from their originalpur- pose. The room used as a chemical laboratory until the fire of April 24, 1909, was built for