Northern Arizona State Teachers College - La Cuesta Yearbook (Flagstaff, AZ)

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but be flattered at this mark of attention, for how could they know that the real cause of the holiday was to prevent the visitors' learning how few pupils were in the school? Mr. Pollock says that it wasn't long, however, before the school's reputation had attracted stu- dents in sufficient number to make official visi- tors welcome without having to close. In 1902 to 1903 the enrollment was 41. In 1902 the resi- dence of Mr. Bunch was rented for a dormitory and Mrs. S. S. Acker had charge of it. Early in 1903 the board decided on the installation of a school library, the growth of which has been steady until it is now one of the most complete educational libraries in the southwest. There are about 10,000 Volumes and it is especially rich in works in education, history, and literature. In 1903 a boys' dormitory was built, later nam- ed Taylor Hall, in honor of the first president of the institution. This dormitory has been increas- ed in capacity since then. In 1907 a girls' dorm- itory was authorized which was built soon after and named for Francis H. Bury, who with Mr. Taylor were the first members of the faculty. In 1911, a commodious dining hall was built. In 1913, a special session of the first state legisla- ture appropriated money for a third dormitory which was named for Miss Mary Morton, now Mrs. T. E. Pollock, a member of the faculty in 1910. That same legislature authorized the build- ing of a heating plant. The growth in building was continuous. The fourth dormitory was built from the appropriation made by the second state legislature in 1915. This was named Campbell Hall, in honor of Mrs. Hugh Campbell, widow of State Senator Hugh Campbell, who did so much at various times in legislative assemblies. Ashurst auditorium, a beautiful addition to the -original building was erected in 1917. It in turn was named in honor of United States Senator Henry H. Ashurst. Appropriation for the excel- lent new training school was made in 1919. ' That the development of Flagstaff did not any more than keep pace with that of the normal school is indicated in the following newspaper comment of 1908. An effort is being made by public spirited cit- izens to secure sufficient funds to build a wagon road from the city to the Normal school. The mud is so deep that extra teams must be hired to pull wagons carrying students' trunks to the dor- mitories. The territory has spent over 340,000 in E ghty F' MRS. T. E. POLLOCK

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I find that in 1899 up to July the first, 5993.23 was expended 5 in 1900, SB14,844.34, mainly for buildings, and in 1901, for maintenance, 557,405.54 In 1903 a special appropriation permitted expendi- tures of 313,191.22 for more buildings. From accounts in the Coconino Sun of the op- ening of the first term of school, I obtained the following: The informal opening of the Northern Arizona Normal School took place on Monday, twenty-three pupils being in attendance. The school was addressed by Hon. A. A. Dutton, mem- ber of the territorial board of education, J. E. Jones, Rev. Geo. Logie, J. C. Grim, Professor A. N. Taylor, the principal, and Miss Bury, his as- sistant. The school starts out under the most favorable auspices. Ten pupils are expected the first of next week, five of them from Apache county. The school will no doubt be one of the leading educational institutions of the territory. A great deal of interest is being taken in it throughout northern counties of the territory. The Sun said of the second annual opening in 1900: The Normal school opened on September 4. Two teachers have been added, Miss Cornelia Hartwell, and Miss Maude E. Babcock. A train- ing school has been established, and many other improvements made which put the normal school on a very secure working basis. Attendance has increased. During the first two years, the governing board of the school was a territorial board, gov- erning both the state normal schools. The terri- torial treasurer and superintendent of public in- struction were members ex-officio. After the two years separate boards were established. Of this Professor A. N. Taylor wrote recently: The first board was a joint board of both normal schools. The legislature of 1900-1901 passed an act separating the board, giving each normal a board with superintendent R. L. Long, chairman of each board. This was done by a suggestion of Governor Murphy. Mr. A. A. Dutton and Mr. T. E. Pollock were undoubtedly the real source of Governor Murphy's action. Mr. Pollock recalls with amusement the occas- ional visits to the school during its early years of committees from the territorial legislature. A committee of from five to seven members of the legislature would arrive in Flagstaff. These were gala occasions. The normal school would always close and the children were given a holiday in their honor. The visiting legislators could not Eighty-F

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-14 lvw i::.,,.g, R. H. H. BLOME Ja ' '24 improvements and additions to the school. The normal school is one of the important institutions of Northern Arizona and that fact should be ap- preciated by Flagstaff. The institution has always been noted for the excellence of the work that has been done, but it is a far cry from the biennial report of 1902 made by President A. N. Taylor showing an enrollment of thirty-four pupils, mostly in high school sub- jects, with a faculty of four teachers and a train- ing school of twenty-five pupils, with a single stove-heated building occupying but a small frac- tion of the campus, to the institution of today with its buildings and campus invoiced at approx- imately a million dollars, with its faculty of twen- ty specialists, with its student body almost whol- ly of college grade, with at times seven hundred people upon the campus, not including the three hundred children in the training school. But the institution has only reflected the growth of Arizona in population and wealth. It will be remembered that Arizona was the only state to show an increase during the last decade of more than fifty per cent in its citizenship. It is interesting to read the old catalogues of the institution. According to one of these, the first class to graduate in 1901 consisted of four members-Mrs. Margaret Wallace, Clara Ken- drick, Alice Campbell and Maude Williams. The class of 1902 consisted of seven members, an in- crease of 75 per cent, which, by the way, is a greater increase than that of today. The increase for the last few years has stood at about 35 per cent. Approximately one hundred students will be graduated from the institution this year. A history of the normal school would not be complete without mentioning the big and faith- ful men of the state who have served upon its boards of trustees. After all, the board is respon- sible for the policies of the school and is the legal rock upon which the institution is founded. It is regrettable that photographs of all of these men could not be obtained. The effort was made but was unsuccessful in some cases. Professor A. N. Taylor, the first president of the school, served the institution for ten years, when he was succeeded by Dr. Blome, whose re- cent death is mourned by so many friends and former students of the school. Dr. Blome was president from 1909 until 1918. Under his direc- tion the school grew rapidly in attendance, char- acter and prestige. He was succeeded by Super- Eighty S