University of North Texas - Yucca Yearbook (Denton, TX)

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Big Ideas Ignited DGH'I'OI'I in the spring of 1890, nudging its citizens into approval of a plan that would still look appealing 75 years later. The ideas belonged to Joshua C. Chilton, an educator from Indiana who proposed to operate a normal college if Denton would provide a building. tA $15,000 bond was soon approved for a building, and several months later a 10-man syndicate arranged acquisition of a 10-acre tract west of t0wn.1 Chilton,s proposal now seems unassuming, unimposing, at least on first glance. A look at a 1931 photograph of the first classroom will explain why: Classes, begun 75 years ago in the fall of 1890, were held for one full year above a hardware store on the city square of Dentonea town with 2,558 inhabitants, eight saloons, no sidewalks, no bridges, n0 electric lights, no telephones, no water works. Nearly one mile west of that unlikely site sprawls the campus of North Texas State University, which Gov. John Connally,s Com- mittee on Education Beyond the High School has designated as one of five state universities in Texas, plan for higher education. On Feb. 21, 1891, the cornerstone was laid for the first building, the only campus structure until 1903; classes were first held there in September, 1891. Only the buildings cornerstone, displayed in the Museum in the Historical Building, can be found today. Since 1890, North Texas has been led by eight presidents tsee pages 24-251 and has had six names. When Chilton became the first president, the school was called Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute. In 1894 the normal was authorized to issue state teaching certificates in a bill that accidentally called the institution North Texas Normal College - its first name-change. With further state support and recognition, other names evolved, including North Texas State Normal College 119011; North Texas State Teachers College 119231; and North Texas State College 119491. By sheer coincidence, on May 8, 1961, exactly 71 years after foundefs day tMay 8, 18901, Gov. Price Daniel signed a bill which gave the school its present name and university status. Appropriately enough, the name-changing measure tHouse Bill 6451 was intro- duced in the legislature by Rep. Joe Ratcliff, a former North Texan. The Depression Crushed Plans Of A Now-Prominent Architect, O1Neil Ford RECREATIONAL CENTER NORTH MAS STATE TEACHERS COLILGE mm O'Neil, FORD -Ancmrm

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.A. BACKWARD GLANCE Edited by Dick Beene

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North Texas Began Simply Enough: First Classes Were Held Above A Hardware Store, Which Later Become A Grocery Mart ,ka . w n ,,ss v . m - ax Construction Has Advanced From Occasional Spurts to Frequent Outbursts