Mary Washington College - Battlefield Yearbook (Fredericksburg, VA)

Page 14 text:

HISTORY OF MARY WASHINGTON COLLEGE as the Rappahannock Valley. The session began with a small faculty and one hundred and twenty-five students, not one of whom it is believed was a high school gradu- ate. In the comparatively brief space of thirty-three years, the student body was to reach a total of more than two thousand students. This rapid growth constitutes a high tribute to the efficiency of both administration and faculty during a period when many serious handi- caps had to be overcome. Gradually, as additional appropriations were made available by the General Assembly, t he physical plant was enlarged by the construction of new buildings and the installation of much needed equipment while at the same time the school was enjoying a steady increase in attendance. Within five years from the initial session, industrial training was abandoned and the institution began conferring standard degrees on its graduates. In the meantime the faculty was growing in size and impor- tance, and the school itself assuming a new dignity, which required the first change in its name, so at the legislative session of 1914, it became the ' ' State Teachers College at Fredericksburg. Eleven years later the Col- lege had gained the much-coveted privilege of granting degrees in liberal arts. That the teachers colleges, though youthful, with the exception of Farmville, were meeting expectations may be gathered from the report of Dr. M. V. O ' Shea, direc- tor of the survey of the public educational system of the Commonwealth, to the Educational Commission of Virginia in 1918, wherein he said, The best of these teachers colleges are better than the average college, and the poorest of them is better than many private and denominational colleges in Virginia and elsewhere. ' ' While the school at Fredericksburg was experiencing growing pains, an influential body of women in the State were insistently demanding at each recurring session of the General Assembly the establishment of a liberal arts college for women, co-ordinate with and located at the University of Virginia. Their demand for such a college was generally concurred in but their insistence that it be situated at Charlottesville stirred up a storm of con- troversy which was to rage for many years, and which has but now been happily ended by Act of the General Assembly of Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Four. Against the demands of the women who led the fight for the establishment of the college at the University, was opposed the overwhelming sentiment of the Alumni and the student body, who had always regarded Jeffer- son ' s great institution as one exclusively for men. This opposition made itself felt at each session of the As- sembly and was potent enough to defeat repeated at- tempts to secure approval of the plan by either house. The matter thus rested until the session of 1918, when a commission was appointed to study the entire problem, including that of the location of the proposed college. This Commission reported to the session of 1930, as follows: I . ' ' That a liberal arts college exclusively for women should be established and supported by the State of Virginia. 2.. That said college should be co-equal with the Col- lege of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vir- ginia, and should be co-ordinate with the Uni- versity as an integral part thereof. 3. That it should be located at or near Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, or Fredericksburg. 10

Page 13 text:

HISTORY OF MARY WASHINGTON COLLEGE sublime valor of the American soldier. In spite of the lapse of so many years since Confederate guns found lodgement on these hills the interested visitor will be shown reminders of the day ' s grim conflict in well-preserved gun pits and artillery emplacements within the college grounds. Prior to the year 1908, it was generally recognized throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, that more adequate facilities should be afforded for the training of badly needed teachers in our public schools. At that time, the only institution devoted exclusively to this purpose was the Normal School for Women at Farmville, and while this institution was doing fine work its facilities were inadequate to meet the growing needs of the com- mon schools. This fact was well-known to the General Assembly and when it became apparent that one or more ad- ditional schools would have to be created, a number of cities and towns became contenders for the location of such school or schools as the General As- sembly might determine upon. A sharp though friendly con- test ensued during the session of 1908 in the course of which all of these, with the excep- tion of Harrisonburg and Fred- ericksburg, were eliminated, leaving the two latter to battle it out for the coveted honor. There followed a fight which will long be remembered in Virginia legislative history in which Harrisonburg was se- lected by the Senate, only to have Fredericksburg chosen by the House. A dead lock resulted, which threatened the defeat of both bills, but last minute legislative strategy saved the situation and by a combination of forces representatives of the two cities in the assembly, with the assistance of the late Governor Claude A. Swanson, succeeded in attaching the respective bills as amendments to the gen- eral appropriation act of that session. Since the General Assembly had only planned to es- tablish one school it was unprepared for two and strong opposition at once developed to the passage of the bill with the proposed amendments. The strength of this opposition is evidenced by the fact that the bill was finally approved by the closest possible Constitutional margins in both House and Senate, but by this vote these two splendid schools came into being and have, in the course of years, proven invaluable to the Commonwealth in the work which they were directed to perform. The appropriation for the new school at Fredericks- burg, provided by the bill for the two years of the bi- ennium was very small and even though supplemented by an additional amount, which the city of Fredericks- burg had pledged, was insufficient to warrant an immedi- ate building program so that the Board of Trustees, appointed by the Governor to manage the affairs of the new institution, necessarily confined itself, for the time being, to the selection of a suitable site. Immediately, as might have been expected, a division of opinion arose among members of the Board as to this site, which finally resolved itself into a choice between flat land adjoining the city on the northwest, and the high ground west of the city upon which the college now stands. Members advocating the for- mer, based their argument on the fact that the cost would be much less. Those advocating the latter, while admitting the force of this argument, em- phasized the necessity of secur- ing a site which would lend beauty and dignity to the new institution, even at greater initial cost. The contention within the Board, becoming acute, and no decision having been reached, certain citizens of Fredericks- burg interested themselves in the selection and successfully urged upon the Board choice of the present site. The wisdom which dictated the final action of the Board was subse- quently to be attested by the report of a legislative com- mittee made in 193 1, which will be later referred to. The site having been finally selected and additional appropriations made available by the General Assembly of 1910, construction was at last begun and one building, Frances Willard Hall, completed in time to permit the school to open its doors to students in September, 191 1. One may well imagine the difiicidties which con- fronted the infant school with the concentration under a single roof of administration, instructional and student life activities. Warrant for the decision to open the doors of the institution was found, however, in the vital need for teacher training and the immediate necessity of offer- ing enlarged educational facilities to the Tidewater area cast of Fredericksburg, particularly that portion known

Page 15 text:

HISTORY OF MARY WASHINGTON COLLEGE The Assembly of that year, following suggestions of the Commission that it be continued, so directed, and two years later a majority of its personnel united in a second report recommending that the State Teachers College at Fredericksburg be selected for the establish- ment of the Liberal Arts College for Women, co-ordinate with the University of Virginia. Space does not permit reproduction here of all of the reasons assigned by the Commission for its selection, but it is interesting to note an extract from its report, as follows : ' ' The Commission does not, however, rest its judgment merely upon negative or comparative considerations. There are many affirmative and positive reasons of weight and substance that commend the Fredericksburg site. It is one of natural beauty and dignity upon the historic Marye ' s Heights overlooking Fredericksburg, a city redolent of associations, reaching back to early colonial days. Few localities in Virginia or in America exhibit such a collection of examples of colonial and early national domestic architecture as are to be found in the city and its environs. Approximately half-way between the capitals of the Nation and the State, with admirable transportation service between them by rail and highway, Fredericksburg is readily accessible to them both and it is coimected by excellent roads with all sections of Virginia. The site comprises seventy-five acres. The main col- lege group is on three sides of a quadrangle and opposite the central building is the most modem college dining hall in Virginia. The present buildings of red brick and white facing and columns, possess the simplicity and dignity which is characteristic of Virginia educational institutions. In planning for the future architectural development of the college, the existing group of build- ings might be retained intact as the residential quad- rangle, and another group of academic buildings, in- cluding the library, science hall and administration buildings might gradually be added as the dominant quadrangle. The value of the college at Fredericksburg is greatly enhanced by the beauty of its nautral setting in a grove of approximately twelve acres. With a little money and landscape planning there is ample opportunity for de- veloping the esthetic features of the grounds in a maimer that will be distinctive among the Virginia colleges. In spite of the two reports cited, the matter remained in abeyance and the college at Fredericksburg continued its way alone, rapidly increasing in strength and prestige as a result of progressive administration, improved student body and the addition of many new and beauti- ful buildings. Once again the College was to experience a change in name, this time for all time it was to become the Mary Washington College. By Act of the General Assembly of 1938, this name, happily suggested and historically appropriate, was bestowed upon the institution in honor of the mother of Washington, whose life was so closely woven in the fabric of Fredericksburg. The movement to establish a co-ordinate college for 11