Mount Vernon College - Bell Cote Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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Mrs. Beatrice Spottswood How can we thank you For the time you have spent For devotion And patience For the hours without rest. Kindness and pride Are yours by nature You have roots that run deep And love that is stable. You have seen Mount Vernon In good times and bad You have touched many lives And made many friends. The words are difficult But the thoughts sincere Thank you Bea For being here.

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the shoulder by an elderly faculty member who remarked severly: Oh, Mr Lloyd, you are a very great experiment for us He set a precedent for it is evident today that the college has not discriminated against male faculty or administrators. Despite the outbreak of the war, the school experienced its biggest enrollment ever in 1942. but in the same year the Navy informed Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd that the school property was to be requistioned for the duration of the war Mr and Mrs Lloyd supported by their students decided not to close the school, and after a difficult search, they were able to move the dormitories into a number of large, unoccupied homes in Spring Valley. The classrooms, library and assembly hall were housed on the top floor of the lulius Garfinckel store, which had just opened and could not be stocked because of shortages caused by war In the address made by Mrs. Lloyd for Founder ' s Day 1961, there is a very moving passage in which she describes her feelings about leaving the Nebraska Avenue campus: But if it was heartbreaking, it was funny too as night after night, the criminals , of our staff, Mr. Lloyd and Brooks, jim Platter and others, smuggled out blackboards and little stoves, hid the chemistrv equipment and all the things we felt the Navy could do without and we knew we couldn ' t. I think it is the only time in the history of Mount Vernon that the Navy has ever been unpopular! January the 15th came and the moving. Great vans were to go dowm the next morning, forty of them, truckload after truckload. The school seemed so desolate and our courage seemed so small. At twilight I got the key from the young ensign in charge and I went over to the School Chapel. There all was quiet and unchanged. Tor the Christmas wreath still hung in the window, and I went forward and knelt in a senior pew, which would be just one of the pews our college seniors are sitting in this morning. Somehow, as I knelt there, in the stillness the resentment and the hurt went out of my heart The quiet Chapel seemed filled: — Mrs. Somers was there, Mrs. Hensley, Miss Cole, faculty members, students, servants, and I felt for the first time in my life I knew the meaning of the words, Wherefore seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience the path that is set before us. I got up from my knees w-ith a fresh faith and courage to go out into the cold January dusk, so down to Spring Valley to wait the return of the students At that moment, but not before. I knew that nothing we were leaving behind was important, that the intangible things, those things that really mattered were still ours, if we would prove worthy of the task entrusted to us. It is this spirit which keeps a school alive. You cannot realize, very few people do realize, how nearly in those days there was no more Mount Vernon. A search began for a permanent post war home which was found in the school ' s present location on Foxhall Road in 1944. In 1946 construction was underway but slowed by strikes, shortages and slow deliveries The opening of the school had to be postponed until October when the students from the preparatory division moved into Somers and Cole House was used for classrooms until the Administration building could be completed. The Refectory was unfinished so meals had to be served on paper plates in the basement of Somers. There were bathroom curtains instead of doors, makeshifts of all kinds and mud everywhere. Once the Refectory was completed, Lloyd Hall, Acheson, Post Hall and the Library beneath it. followed. In 1970, the Florence Hollis Hand Chapel was completed, and was the recipient of an award bv the American Institute ot Architects The New Dormitory was completed in 1971, and the swimming pool in the summer of 1975 Throughout the early decades of this century the school emphasized individual learning, small classes, a faculty primarily interested in teaching and in maintaining a close, friendly relationship with students The recent policy of clarifying the objectives in all the courses of study offered, is a continuation of the methods described in the twenties The course will be laid out in a series ot contracts or goals, progress from one to another to be made through a series of tests In 1962, Mr. Mrs. Lloyd retired and Mr Pelham became President. The decision to phase out the Seminary was made in 1965 so the last commencement of the Seminary was held in 1969 In the seventies the college has remained faithful to the principles of individualized education and has developed a calendar which encourages concentration on a smaller number of courses and allows students to enter the college at five different points in the academic year The college has encouraged the applications from adult women whose presence adds a new dimension to the institution The most important evidence of growth, however, has been the establishment of the four B.A. programs which has taken place over the past four years And tomorrow where will Mount Vernon be? Our future lies in maintaining the identity earned for us in the past and in the present so that the college may continue to be, as Liz Carpenter said in her Commencement address in 1974. “a jewel of a small liberal arts college educating young women in an admirable and exciting way for the kind of world we live in. Written by: Valerie Vesser

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When we need something fast Or change for a dollar Your door is always open All we need do is holler. Lives you do save When the session begins With books and erasers The confusion finally ends. Throughout the term Your work never stops Because of last minute changes In projects we start. The trouble we might give you Is all in jest We think — Mrs. Beam — That you are the best. Mrs. Janice Beam