Macalester College - Quid Nunc Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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Macalestefs first graduating class, 1899. Dr. James Wallace, who represents the many people who math- saurihccs that Macalester might remain open. Dr. Edward D. Neill, founder and first president of Macalester. The charter for the Baldwin School was obtained in 1853 by Dr. Neill after Mr. lVl. W. Baldwin, a wealthy Philadelphian, had replied favorably to a letter from Dr. Neill stating his interest in the establishment of a prepara- tory school in St. Paul. Its curriculum consisted mainly of courses in English, French, German, Latin and piano and vocal work. Among the rules and regulationsw of the institution were these: HStudents will take their meals with the President and his family, and will be expected to observe the usages which prevail among decent people. Without permission students will not be allowed to leave the building after supper. Dr. Neill hoped to develop the school into a university,

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A Path of Progress Seventy-five years ago this September, Macalester College opened the doors of what is now the East Wing of Old Main to the first entering Class. The College had origi- nated in the old Winslow House, a famous Summer resort at St. Anthony Falls, and was the outgrowth of Baldwin Academy and Jesus College. In 1874, after a change in the charter, Macalester College was opened as a non-sectarian school of higher learning for men. It continued as such until the Synod of Minnesota of the Presbyteri- an Church, U.S.A., desiring to sponsor such an institution, took over the College. In 1881, the small school was moved from the heart of the thriving business district of Minneapolis to a lonely wind-swept plane on the western outskirts of St. Paul. The formal opening of the new Macalester took place on September 16, 1885. It is this anniversary we celebrate. In the year 1887, the first MAC was published. At the time this book appeared there was at the head of the Department of History a man whose name should mean something to every graduate of Macalester College-without whom, indeed, there would have been no college. This was Dr. Edward D. Neil, founder and first president of the school, a man whose undying enthusiasm for life led him into the Great West in the days before Minnesota had become a state, who established the first Presbyteri- an churches in St. Paulg whose appreciation of education contributed to the founding of many schools, among them the University of Minnesota, the first State Teacher,s College at Winona, and Macalester College. Macalester College, 1890

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Macalester College, 1891, taken from Summit Avenue east of Snelling. but the death of his patron and the Civil War interfered with these plans. Returning from the war, he renewed his efforts to establish a college of the New England type in Minnesota, and won the support of Mr. Charles Macales- ter of Philadelphia, who offered him financial backing for the undertaking, convinced of the value of a broad non-sectarian Christian college. Accordingly, in 1874, Macalester College was chartered. Macalester became a synodical school in 1880, in which year Dr. Neill sent in his resignation as president. Winslow House had been sold when the college was moved to St. Paul in 1881, and the money obtained was to be used in the purchase of land and the erection of buildings on the new location. Plans' for a huge building had been outlined, but the plans did not materialize rapidly and for a while there was but one small building in the big Corn field west of Snelling Avenue. This build- ing contained classrooms, the kitchen, dining-room and living quarters for both faculty and students. The formal opening of Macalester as a Presbyterian college took place one late summer day in 1888. The chapel and classrooms were crowded with interested Presbyterians from the Twin Cities and other points throughout the state who came to witness the dedication 9