Shady Side Academy - Academian Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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Ground was broken in February, 1922, and on May 22 the cornerstone of Rowe Hall was laid. School opened after a fashion on the new campus that fall. Forty boys and Mr. Shriver were forced to live on the third floor of Rowe Hall while they waited for Morewood to be completed. Although there was a kitchen in the present locker room and a din- ing room in the present Chapel, the faculty were forced to cook their dinner the night before school opened over an open fire behind the headmaster's apartment in Ells- worth. The program to give Shady Side renewed vigor included more than merely moving to the country. A new head- master, Mr. Harold A. Nomer, was appointed in 1919 and came here from Lawrenceville. Added to the faculty were Dean Merle M. Alexander, Captain William A. Palmer, and Mr. Charles P. Shriver. A dramatic club was organized and produced its first play, Doctor in Spire of Himrelf, in 1920. After a lapse of several years, S.S.A. again put a football team on the field in 1920. Mr. Shriver directed a glee club and a chapel choir. A student council was organized to en- force the honor system then in use. There was even a Boy Scout troop. After the opening of the country school, the Sargon So- ciety was set up to replace the banned Greek-letter societies. The Newr was revived as Knick Kmzckr ceased publication. St. Andrew's and the Forum were organized on much the same bases upon which they now function. The athletic program took on new life, with inter-house competition playing a major role. Firrnly fixed now in its country location, Shady Side roared along with the Roaring Twenties. The enrollment climbed from the low 114 of the-first year to 243 in 1930. Two new activities, the Seven Arts Club and the Aero Club made their respective appearances in 1924 and 1928. A var- sity socccr squad took the field in 1928, varsity wrestling began in the winter of 1929-1930. A gun club was organ- ized hrst in 1923, reorganized in 1927 under Mr. Louis C. Celestin, and continued in existence periodically until 1942. There were attempts to have a hockey team at one time or another, but the uncertainty of the winters prevented hockey from ever becoming a major sport. Even a polo team fought for dear old S.S.A. for several years in the late twenties and early thirties. 1 ll 1 During the depression an effort was put forth to have the school operate under a seven-day boarding plan instead of the Hve-day system. In 1934 all boarding students were re- quired to spend the week-ends at school, classes were held six days a week, and special permissions were necessary for a boy to go home over week-ends. Special entertainments were provided for the full-time boarders, including full- length movies in the gym on Saturday nights. Prominent local ministers preached on the campus for the Sunday morning church services, and at one time the school even employed its own chaplain. Several years later, however, Shady Side returned to what seemed to be the more prac- tical and advantageous plan of five-day boarding. After emerging from the depression somewhat beaten but far from bowed, Shady Side lost the headmaster who had served it since 1919. Dr Harold A. Nomer resigned during the summer of 1937, stating that he had acted as long as any man should in such a position. Mr. Demas E. Barnes replaced him, acting as head for one year. Mr. E. Trudeau Thomas was appointed headmaster in 1938 and was joined by Mr. Roger B. Merriman, former head of the Arnold School, in the fall of 1940 as a result of the merger in that year of the two schools. Mr. Thomas resigned in February of 1941 to go into the armed service. In the summer of 1942 Mr. Merriman followed his footsteps, accepting a commission in the Navy. Mr. Clifton O. Page assumed the position of acting headmaster from September, 1942, until june, 1944. Dr. Erdman Harris, the second headmaster to come from Lawrenceville, began his first school term at Shady Side in September of 1944. The merger with the Arnold School was announced in january of 1940 after three years of negotiations between the boards of the two schools. Arnold, a college preparatory school similar to S.S.A., occupied the site of our present junior School at 400 South Braddock Avenue. The merger was agreed upon after it had been felt by many that Pittsburgh could not support two such schools. A wave of protest from Arnold students soon gave way to a unified spirit, and the move proved a success. Resulting major changes included moving our junior School to the former Arnold property and the release of several faculty members. Shortly afterward the time came for Shady Side to play its role in a second world war. Forty-four Shady Siders made the supreme sacrifice, hundreds of others participated in the various branches of the services. Students and faculty mem- bers carried on as civilians, participating in first aid classes, air raid protection programs, and war bond sales drives. Conservation of tires and gasoline forced the alteration of -- - 00 pdf? 122

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-10' .tt ss' 1'0 iMV'-- ls A BP-if' 'Q-iw 1:5 212- SHIXUV , f The editors of the Academian have chosen this mid-cen- tury year of 1950 to look back over the nearly seventy years of Shady Side's past, hoping that a study of the fascinating story of the Academy's founding and growth will stimulate an interest in the past and provide inspiration for the future. O ir if K fl X It was an era of prosperity, of growth, of wealth-Big Business was beginning to boom. The panic of 1873-1878 was only a bad memory. Newly built railroads, more highly- developed mines, oil wells, coke ovens, and steel mills using the new Bessemer Converter were bringing more and more prosperity to wealthy Pittsburghers. Men built lavish new homes in the increasingly-fashionable East End section - homes with electricity and telephones, and homes with sons to be given a formal education. No longer was the future mill owner to learn everything in his father's shop, for Shady Side Academy was founded ing1885-to pro- vide this new education for some. V' A Professor William Ralston Crabbe had been tutoring a small group of boys in a stable in Allepheny City, now the Northside, a section fast losing its distinction as the home of Pittsburgh's elite. Thousands of Polish and Slavic laborers, who had come to work in the mills, made it un- desirable for the homes of the men whose pockets they filled. Professor Crabbe's boys were receiving instruction in Latin and Greek in preparation for college when he was approached by a few East End men and asked to found a preparatory school in the Shadyside district. This he did in 1883, in a small brick building off Aiken Avenue. The hrst senior class, containing two boys, was graduated in 1885. The next fifteen years saw the growth of the new school into a strong and permanent institution with a faculty, by 1900, numbering 14 men. The firsLAmdie122i411,l1ppearing in 1897, pictures football, basketball, hockey, track, and baseball teams. Incidentally, the average age of the grid- ders that year was 19 years, 7 months, the average weight, 144 pounds. They won four out of six games, losing only to Kiski. Every track meet featured a bicycle race, while the basketball team cavorted in knickers. September 23, 1895, marked the firggssue of the Shady Side Newifwith Mr. Southard I-lay as editor. Musical groups included a glee club and banjo and mandolin ensembles. There were, in fact, some banjo and mandolin players around the school until late in the 1920's. Two secret fraternities functioned, one of whicn gave the first school dance on December 30, 1895. Moving in 1885 from the original site on Aiken Avenue to the building which still stands, the school occupied from that time until 1922 the block bounded by Ellsworth, More- wood, Amberson, and Bayard. An addition doubled the size of the building in 1897. 'll if Ill After twenty-five years of steady growth, Shady Side Academy went into pf decline. In 1915 Dr. Crabbe r ' ne as principal, to be succeeded 'Luther B. Adams. Although there seems to have been at that time an excellent faculty, the school fared badly in the competi- tion offered by the large new free high schools, Schenley and Peabody. Movies, and other forms of entertainment, in the nearby metropolis of Eag,Libet.ng were. blamed f6r the lack of study. It seerr,15,Lha.LoLunior didn't study as well at Shady ,Side as head in the Eastern prep schools. Not onljcdid the School fallin local esteem, but it seems also to have been decaying from within. The plant was hardly adequate to the needs. The playing field was too small for regulation football or baseball, and the gymnasium was in such a condition that some visiting teams even re- fused to play in it. An athletic director resigned in 1916 to go into the chicken raising business. The New: ceased publication, giving way in 1911 to Knick Knackr, a collec- tion of stilted products of the faculty pen and unfunny at- tempts at student humor, plus a few respectable jokes taken from exchange publications. No Academiam can be found from this same period. In more ways than one Shady Side was coming apart, for from about 1907 on the name was written in two words as it still is. Plans were undertaken in 1916 to pump new life into the Academy and to move it to a more intellectually stimulating location in Fox Chapel. The World War C in which 297 Shady Siders servedl delayed further action until 1919. At that time Mrs. Wallace Rowe consented to donate 125 acres of land if at least 3500,000 was raised to carry out the project of building a new school plant. A campaign among alumni and prominent citizens raised 31,000,000 Armed with a noble-sounding prospectus of which the first item was, Pure air, fresh milk, vegetables from fthe school'sJ own garden, the trustees drew up plans calling for a layout similar to that of the present campus.

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FACULTY