Prairie View A and M University - Pantherland Yearbook (Prairie View, TX)

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IX 1IMOIMAM To IIm .Million of P. E. rUncle BLEDSOE He was a soft-spoken man who greeted everyone with a warm smile that radiated kindness and established between him and his fellowmen a quiet bond of friendship. With a zest for life that rendered him active until the clarion call, he labored untiringly during his thirty-five years tenure of professorship. May he ever be remembered as “Uncle Paul” a noble personage who did not lose the “common touch.” 10

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Brief History of Prairie View Before the Civil War the site on which Prairie View now stands was a slave plantation owned by Jared Ellison Kirby. After the War this estate was turned into a fashionable school for wealthy white girls. In 1878 the plantation became Alta Vista Agricultural College for Negroes; however, the recently freed Negroes did not welcome a school for farmers and so only six students enrolled, therefore, the venture was temporarily abandoned. By an Act of the State Legislature a school for the training of Negro teachers was established in April 19, 1879. The Spanish name Alta Vista was changed to its English equivalent, Prairie View; and the old slave mansion became an important building of the college and was named Kirby Hall for its original owner. Industrial features were added to the original curriculum and Prairie.View was placed under the same management as the Texas A. M. College, with a principal in absolute charge of the local administrative duties. In 1890 under the Morrill Act Prairie View, as a I md Grant College, became eligible for Federal appropriations; and in 1898 the Legislature appropriated $20,000.00 for the purchase of l,f 00 acres of land. Seven departments made up that first curriculum of the Prairie View Normal and Industrial College. They were English. Mathematics, Pedagogy, Natural Science, Home Arts, Mechanical Arts, and Agriculture. The curriculum grew, and in 1920 the first Bachelor of Science degrees were conferred on Prairie View-graduates. The establishment of the Graduate School in 1938 and the conferring of the first Masters degrees in August, 1939, mark the culmination of curriculum growth. When Prairie View was established there were only three buildings on the campus and the highest enrollment reached in its first decade was one hundred fifty. But in the next ten years the enrollment increased to five hundred students. At present, in the sixty-first year of its history, Prairie View has ninety-seven buildings and an enrollment of 1,278 students. 9

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Some Campus Buildings (1) Science Building, (2) Old Chapel (front view), (3) Veterinary Hospital, (4) Luckic Hall (5) Crawford Hall, (6) Foster Hall, (7) Power Plant, (8) Education Building, (9) Minor Hall, (10) Administration Building, (11) Gymnasium, (12) Mechanic Arts Building, (13) Old Chapel (side view), (14) Home Economics Building, (15) Evans Hall, (16) Dining Hall, (17) Blackshear Hall, (18) Laundry, (19) Agriculture Building, (20) Hospital, (21) College Exchange. 11