Mercersburg Academy - Karux Yearbook (Mercersburg, PA)

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KIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllKlllllllllllllIJIIIIIIIIIIIIKllllllllllllllllllIlllllllllxxx T h e K a r u X xxxlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKI-g small inlirmary was built, and during the winter of i905 and l906 the larger infirmary was completed. Even without the additions now under construction to these buildings we can boast of the best equipped inlirmary connected with any educational institution in the state. The ten-acre track on which Laucks Hall now stands was next purchased, and in the summer of i906 this dormitory was erected. The following year Main Hall wing was enlarged by a fifteen-foot addition, extending from cellar to roof. In l909 the ground was broken for the Gymnasium, in l9l0 the power plant was built, and in l9l I the building of the Gymnasium was begun. The following year this building, which is ranked superior to any gymnasium of a boys' preparatory school in the country, was completed, the dedicatory service being held in October. Altho the Gymnasium is the newest of our buildings, the story of the growth of the academy equipment is not complete without mention of the various additions to the school property which had taken place from time to time. One of the earliest purchases, not previously mentioned, was that of the held upon which the big infirmary now stands, a field which stretches eastward to the top of the hill as far as the academy property ex- tends. When the three lots which now comprise the Rose Garden were purchased, the building now known as Maple Cottage was moved from this land to its present site and enlarged for a small dormitory. After the purchase of the Laucks Hall tract the out-of-door theatre was planned and in l9l2 it was completed. The large held in front of Main Hall, together with the adjoining fields to the south. as far as the Green- castle pike, were soon purchased, piece by piece from Henry Spangler, Esq., and the Hon. A. H. Schnebly. The ground known as the academy truck garden on which are the wagon shed, barns, orchard, etc., was purchased in 1899 from Edward Y. Weber, of New York City. These, and other additions, now make the academy property total one hundred and twenty acres of land, stretching from the site of Maple cottage on the north to the Greencastle Pike on the south: and from the hill-top east of the Infirmary to Church street, the Reformed Church parsonage, Hoffeditis house, and the adjoining lane on the west. A glance into the future brings before our vision other beautiful and serviceable buildings to be erected on the campus. The first of these will be the Chapel, already designed by Mr. R. A. Cram, the noted architect. This building will cost SI50,000. exclusive of memorials, and will crown the hill to the southwest of Eighty-Eight dormi- tory. The present war is delaying the carrying out of these plans. After the chapel will come the recitation and administration buildings, science hall and library. But such a glance is into the distant future. 6 KllllIIIllllllKIlllllllllllIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllKJIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllll 1 9 1 8 l lIlIIllvum-sllll 71 .4 F .4 F .4 H : r. : R : z : a : r. : n : 5 : Fu : E R : Fi : E R : 2 : z : : -.: .1 -.: R : E Q :

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ElllllllllllllKIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIKK T h e K a r u X lllllflllllllllllllIlIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllx Z M CErn1nth nf this Amhvmg Equipment HEN Dr. Irvine became head master of the school in IS93 the entire school was housed, fed, and taught in'lVlain Hall, exclusive of the chapel wing which had not then been built. The campus consisted of four acres on which stood North and South Cottages and Main Hall. The Cottages were, during the first year, occupied by private families. For the second year the growth of the school demanded that South Cottage be taken over for school purposes and in I894 North Cottage be- came the residence of the head master. In the Summer of IS96 a wing was added to Main' Hall and two years later South Cottage was enlarged by the addition of the third story. During the first years of this period the eastern boundary of the academy property was a fence stretching north and south where the line of maples now stands, just east of Main Hall. Beyond this a large field stretched to what is now the avenue of white pines in front of the gymnasium. Half of this field, the western slope near Main Hall, was rent- ed as an athletic field. On this uneven slope lVlercersburg's first baseball and football heroes practiced and played their games, laying the foundations for the more famous contests to come. After a few years the entire field was purchased for an athletic field. The next addition to the academy property was the ten acres on which Keil Hall and Eighty-Eight Dormitory now stand. In May, IS99, the ground was broken for Keil Hall. During the summer of i900 Keil was finished and it was dedicated with a formal ceremony on October 26th. The dining room, so familiar to every student, is ranked by art critics as without a peer in the country. In the meanwhile the running track was being built. This was in the spring of l899, ancl during this period the 'Varsity nine played its games on what is now known as the second athletic field. In the fall of this same year the cage was built. The cage was a building thirty feet wide by eighty long, located at the foot of the hill in back of Main Hall. It was in this cage, with no other gymnasium for their use, that some of the most famous of Mercersburg's athletes were trained. With the comple- tion of the gymnasium thirteen years later, the cage was demolished. At commencement in l903, the completion of the tenth year of Dr. lrvine's ad- ministration was celebrated. In the presence of a large number of alumni and guests the ground for Eighty-Eight Dormitory was broken. R. P. McGrann, '94, now an officer of the Standard Oil Company in San Francisco, lifted the first shovelful of earth: and the second was lifted by President Woodrow Wilson, then President of Prince- ton University. On the previous evening President Wilson had delivered in Keil Hall, an oration on American Citizenship, which oration is still remembered as one of the finest ever delivered in the Cumberland Valley. Eighty-Eight Dormitory was completed the following March, at which time the I24 boys, who had been rooming in town because of lack of accomodations on the hill, were brought up to the campus. Previous to this two additions had been made to the academy grounds. These were the six acres now south of the Gymnasium, on which the new athletic field was completed in I9I 3: and the four acres north of this tract where the Gymnasium now stands. In l903, at the time of the building of Eighty-Eight, the 5 klllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIlIIIIIIIllIIIIllIHllIlIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllig, 1 9 1 8 xxlllllllllllllKlllllllllllllllllllllllllllIllIlIlIllIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK Bm..

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KJIIIIIIIItllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIHIUIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllliIlllllfllllllllllllllxux T h e K a r U X xxxllllllllllIllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIDIIIIIIIIIIIlllllIIlllllllllllllllllllilllx illlvrrerahnrg in Glhinet 'r EARS ago a son of old Mercersburg, Dr. William E. Hoy, founded the North Japan College at Sendai, Japan, which institution has since become the leading Christian College of the northern part of the empire. After laboring there with abundant success for many years, Dr. Hoy became practically incapacitated on account of severe and frequent attacks of asthma. On this account he was given a three month's vacaton in the spring of 1898. He imme- diately started for China. After a short perod of time he found himself entirely free from his former disability and spent the re- mainder of his furlough in gathering infor- mation concerning the country to which he had come as an invalid. Day by day the claims of China weighed upon his mind and entered his heart. He began to see in his illness and its cure a call of God to a new pioneer work. Consequently his request to be appointed to China was granted by the Church and he left Japan on October 28, r IS99. On November l5, IS99, he arrived at Hankow and began the study of the Chi- nese language. The latter part of April of the following year he started on up the Yangtse river, bound for Yochow City. Then the Boxer uprising came and he was compelled to return to Japan. However, he took a Chinese teacher with him and continued his study of Chinese. December 23, l90l, found him back in Yochow, established in his own home. Most unexpectedly the London Mission property in Yo- chow City was offered to him at cost price. This offer was gladly accepted and Dr. Hoy found himself established with the necessary equipment and property with which too begin the magnifrcient work which has followed and with which Mercers- burg has been actively associated ever since. No sooner had Dr. Hoy settled in his humble home than a military official called on him and asked him to teach his little son. This was gladly promised him. ln September, l902, Dr. Hoy organized the Seek New Learning School with nine pupils and one Chinese teacher. The school grew so rapidly that its Hrst quarters were soon too small. Others were built and out-grown. In February, I907, the school was moved to a most beautiful campus of a large tract of land, overlooking Tungting Lake, whereon have been erected a splendid and commodious group of modern college buildings. There are four Departments: Preparatory three years: Academy four yearsg College four years: Theological Seminary three years. All of these years a portion of the Sunday offerings at Mercersburg has been devoted to the support of some of the students of this school. Mercersburg has been especially interested in the Medical Department of the mission station at Yochow. The first medical missionary, Dr. Albert Beam, was 7 DR. ADAMS AND FAMILY .nlllllll ' 'llllllllllllllllllllllnllllxx 1 9 1 8 KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllIllllIllllllllKllllIIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllillllllllllllllu