Texas Christian University - Horned Frog Yearbook (Fort Worth, TX)

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J . day had arrived when it was more important to have a ready means of travel than to have abundance of wood and water at your door. Literary societies, soirees, finan- cial difficulties, new presidents and administrative problems with the retirement of Addison Clark, one of the largest buildings anywhere, changing the name to Texas Chris- tian University in 1902, new de- partments, muddy walks, a new girls' dormitory and handsome new Townsend Hall were all a part of the days at Waco. Then one evening about 8:50 o'clock, two boys on the fourth floor of Main, where the men stu- dents lived, discovered a fire in an unoccupied room. It was March 22, 1909, the date of the fire which ate up the central building at Waco. After the fire, Waco, Fort Worth and Dallas all made bids and offers to the school, and Fort Worthis con- tract was the most attractive. The University moved again, this time to a series of two-story brick build- ings on the corner of Weatherford and Commerce streets, to wait for the buildings to be erected on the Hill. The growth of T. C. U. and Fort Worth, since 1910, have gone hand in hand. Those who know Univer- ity history remember the days of three and five buildings with thick green grass and star-shaped flower beds, the days of the Medical School and the Law School and their dis- continuance to avoid lowering aca- demic standards, the days of special training during two wars, the lean days of depression. Today's upper- classmen remember the days of V-l2'ers and new buildings, the days of grinding tractors and big trees coming down for more con- struction. As T. C. U. celebrates its Dia- mond jubilee year, those who knew the University back when can be glad that in the middle of the school's greatest expansion, the ideals and purposes and philos- ophies which began the school con- tinue to build it. The little Thorp Spring college then, the big Uni- versity now, are in that the same. 0 The first building at Thorp Spring, 1873. 9 After the Waco fire, March 22, 1909. ' Campus as it looked in 1911-1912.

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,,,.: 5 'ft R 'UQ 4 1 l 1' as E 32 31 xii, , H2 1 It started in the minds of two men, this University of yours. Ad- dison Clark and his brother, Ran- dolph Clark, were ready that fall of 1869 to begin education work. Citizens of a frontier town, Fort Wtmrtli, invited them to locate there. Came the railroads, came boom town evils to Fort Wtmrtli. One thing was clear, writes Randolph, that was not the place to build a school to bring studentsf' Randolph and his father, J. A., had their eyes on a cool green valley near Comanche Park, forty miles southwest of Fort Wcxrth. He and his father bought a substantial building from old man Thorp on a hilltop near Thorp Spring. Ran- dolph opened the school the first Monday in September, 1875, with 15 pupils. Before 1874, the school which boasted an unusual co-educa- tional status had 117 enrollees. Addison, convinced by then that the move from the bustling railroad and cattle center would not jeopardize their venture, joined his brother at Thorp Spring that summer. By December 30, 1875, AddRan College was adopted and endorsed at a convention of Christian church congregations as a college for the Christian Brotherhood of Texasfl The brothers moved from the hill to the valley and near the spring, after a financial dispute with old Mr. Thorp, A new rock building went up, paid for with sale of Clark family property. The college became AddRan Christian University in 1889, and the board of trustees, with J. Jarvis as chairman, assumed more responsibility for university policy. Finances were a gnawing worry to the Clarks. Educating young peo- ple was no profitable undertaking, college tuition was S40 to S50 a year. And the catalogue proclaimed of AddRan, lt is retired . . . away from the alluring vices of the city, free from the evils about railway stations. Wlitit took the school away from Fort Wtirtli took it to Wztco, though, One of the reasons for mov- ing to Wfaco was the seven rail- road outletsf' As Colby D. Hall ex- plains in his T. C. U. History, the 0 Architecf's plan for Thorp Spring Building. 0 From the porch of the Girls' Home. U The Thorp Spring columns, 1877.

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Campus Then: June at Waco. U Admmlstrntnon Bulldnng