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

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Up the Steep Hill to Victory Steady Growth of Physical Facilities Prarie View’s first building was the old Kirby i louse. purchased as part of tin Alta Vista Plantation situated east of Hempstead. Female students were housed with the Principal in Kirby Ilall and the young men lived in the 30 by 40 foot combination chapel-dormitory called Pickett Hall. The two buildings made up the early college ampus for several years. Academic Hall was added in 1886 along with si college for Teachers, a brick mechanic shop, a two story dining hall-dormitory and a blacksmith shop. An extensive building program followed at the Turn of the Century. Construction Included Foster and Luckie Halls in 1909: the Auditorium Dining Hall in 1911 and Crawford Hall in 1912. The Household Arts building, the Power and Ice Plant, and Laundry were erected in 1918. The influence of the General Education Board was felt in terms of money for needed college projects and in moving its narrow provincial intellectual life into the stream of Southern and national educational development. It was also realized in the building programs of that time when its funds, combined with Federal grants and other accumulated revenue made possible the Dining Hall, the Hospital, three apartment houses for men teachers, two of three dormitories for women, a green house, an incubator house, a classroom building, a new audito-rium-gymnasium. a new Mechanic Arts Building, over sixty cottages for college • families, and a model college farm unit. The Library building which bears the name of W. K. Banks, was built out of a •late appropriation and General Education Board funds. Most of the newer buildings on campus came since i ut The campus which Includes 1440 acres, now has over 150 buildings valued at an estimated $90 million.

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Since 1887 Serving Texas—. of Her Gre a Throughout its 100 year history. Prairie View ha attempted to Serve Texas at the Points of her Greatest Need. The Founding of the college in 1876 and its establishmen in 1878 met specific needs of Texas to provide a school fo Colored Youth.” in the same fashion as The A M College a College Station. Again in 1870. Prairie View answered the state’s need fo Teacher Education to supply the new public, common schoo education being introduced throughout the south. The 16tl Legislature established the Sam Houston Normal Institute and The Prairie View Normal Institute. Friends of Negro education launched in 1881 a drive fo l the creation of the constitutionally provided Negro branch o the University of Texas. A public election was held and Aus tin was selected as the site, but despite promises to endow and build, all that the state was to do for higher education fo: its Negro Citizens was to be concentrated at Prairie View, until 1947. Prairie View served the needs of Texas when it established an Agricultural and Mechanical Department and set up branch Experiment Station at the Little Normal. Texas Negroes in 1895 called for some form of the Booke: Members of Ihe Class of 1901 relurn to the Campus. ROTC dates back to 1918 on campus. Agriculture dub in 1917. The Waiters dub in 1916-17.