Morgan Park Military Academy - Skirmisher Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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A History of Morgan Park Military Academy IT was Away bacic when in 1893 that i first visited Morgan Paric. A month before i had enroiied at the University of Chicago, a friend Bob Hughes icnew i was homesick for my native mountains. He had attended the Academy the previous summer.

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Farewell to the Class of 1945 The clarion note of the bugle will soon sound the call tor the last formation in the cycle ol your preparatory education. The hours and days pregnant with struggles moral, mental, social and physical in this period ot your adolescent development will soon end, and out of your new horizon will rise the dawn ot another day. A day ot critical conflict, ot extraordinary problems, of strange situations and difficult decisions and yet a day in which all of these l know will be met with courage and heroism, with mental acumen, with stolid determination and prayerlul consideration. The untrod paths ot the future we know not where they lead, as the will of the infinite God, inscrutable and mysterious, is not always discernable to mortals here below. The world is torn asunder with war and conflct, battlefields are strewn with the maimed, the dying, and the dead, the foundation of a glorious civilization wrought throughout the ages are tottering and on the verge of collapse and the destiny of this our beloved country is in the balance. This is the environment into which you are now entering. It is a challenge to your loyalty, your heroism, your honor, your patriotism, your undying devotion and your faith in the right. Following the flag ot destiny, the sacred symbol ot our national unity, living for and perchance dying for it, l know you will quit yourselves like men with an abiding faith in the right and the courage to uphold it. ln the firmament of your lite may there shine brightly the stars of lofty hopes, of noble aspirations and firm convictions in the rectitude of God and the common brotherhood of man. My congratulations on your past successes. l extend to you a hope that you may climb to greater heights in the domain of eminent achievement l cherish For you and a prayer that the stars in your sky may ever sparkle with an undying glow and that their brightness and lustre may never wane until they burst into the splendor of a blessed immortality l offer for you. Sincerely yours, Zgofff 04.45 mee

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Bob remarked, lt you will go out to Morgan Park with me, l'll show you the only hill in this vicinity. Upon arrival l learned that his chief interest was calling upon the Academy librarian. ln those days the central section of what is now the enlarged public library was Academy property. While Bob visited l wandered about the campus. Blake Hall was then in its youth. Directly across 111th Street, then Morgan Avenue, was Morgan Hall, a great rambling brick dormitory. lts main entrance was just beyond the two elm trees, some Fifty Feet north of the gates to Abells Field. The Academy laboratory, where l latertaught chemistry and physics, stood on the area now occupied by the east goal posts. ln approxi- mately 1910 the laboratory was moved across Hoyne Avenue and converted into the apart- ment building north of the library. At the same time Morgan Hall was taken down. These three buildings housed the Baptist Theological Seminary from 1873 to 1892. South ot112thStreet, called Rinaldo Avenue, Park Hall was erected in 1873. It was located on the site of our gymnasium and served as the barracks of the old Morgan Park Military Academy. Previous to my First visit the drill hall ot the military school was wrecked. It was situated where West Hall is. ln 1892 the new University had taken over all the Morgan Park property and converted the two institutions into a coeducational academy f ' .1 9 E K xi , ' I I r .ww N. 41 1, I I . . .vmviw -uv'-'fs Vg ,, . - s we W . which it conducted. as an integral department ol the University. Park Hall was the girls' dormitory, Morgan Hall was For the boys. The next vivid memory l have of the Academy was in the early spring of 1894. One Sunday evening President Harper of the University was called out of a meeting over which he was presiding. When he returned he reported that Park Hall of the Academy had burned to the ground. He told us that the fire was discovered while the girls were at supper. They lost their clothes and other possessions. ln the emergency Morgan Hall was divided into two sections- one was occupied by the boys, the other by the coeds. During the following three years l visited the Academy occasionally. Sometimes l attended a Y. M. C. A. meeting. More often we of the University baseball team gave help to the Academy team. ln the fall ol 1897 l had Sunday dinner in the Morgan Hall dining hall with Fred Nichols and his bride. ,LAW