Wheaton College - Nike Yearbook (Norton, MA)

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the school President Cole had worked so hard to develop. Faculty increased under President Park, as did enrollment and funds, even during the Depression. World War Il, however, did slow the building of additional facilities and created a drain on employees. Students organized themselves and filled in the gaps left open around the campus. In 1944 President Park retired and was suc- ceeded by A. Howard Meneely. Under this President, salaries for faculty were increased and the administration expanded. President Meneely was sharply aware that the Baby Boom of the 1950s would put great strains on the present facilities as the number of stu- dents rose. Several additions to existing buildings were made and new dorms were built. Dr. William C. H. Prentice became Whea- ton’s next leader after President Meneely died in 196]. The expansion of the campus continued and included the building of the Watson Fine Arts Center, a building desired by the community for many years. In the early 1970s students became politically active and vocal regarding the conflict in Vietnam and in 197! the decision to remain an all wom- en’s school was made by the trustees. The first female President of Wheaton was inaugurated in 1975, and Alice F. Emerson has continued to lead the College in a progressive manner. As under her predecessors, Presi- dent Emerson has increased the campus fa- cilities and enrollment of students. Mary Lyon was renovated and the Balfour-Hood Center was opened recently, as well as many other inprovements being made. The most recent and controversial change to occur since 1912 was the decision in 1987 by the trustees to begin to admit men as candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree beginning with the class of 199. Wheaton, thus, has not remained a strictly traditional school, but has changed according to the needs of its students and society. The continuous changes Wheaton has experi- enced over the last 153 years have been to insure the survival of the school and consis- tantly provide an excellent education to the students. We should look at this latest change as part of this “Tradition of Change” which was begun with the founders of the school.

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school approximately $60,000, of which only the interest was to be spent. Under President Cole a massive building program was begun that would, by 1912, add seven buildings to the campus. This death of Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton at age 95 in 1905 made this construction pos- sible because she left most of her estate to the school she had helped to nurture for over seventy years. As President of the school one of Rev. Cole’s major influences came in the change of administration. Previously there was no separation between faculty and ad- ministrators; the faculty ran the school as well as taught. President Cole began to change this policy by hiring the first Regis- trar-Librarian who did no teaching. The tran- sitory period of the school was academically chaotic with students at all different levels, often needing individual attention and sche- dulinug of lessons. By having the first two years of the seminary move to the “House in the Pines” school across the street, and re- structuring Wheaton’s program to be strictly collegiate, the school was ready to end its’ seminary years and become Wheaton College. On February 12, 1912 Wheaton was granted its’ college charter and the first freshman class was admitted in the fall. Five years later . Mg me Ee aa enrollment had risen to approximately two a ee ff FROM MAINE TO ICELAND | hundred students, a steep climb from the one | : | i i OFFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE hundred enrolled in 1905. World War | had ae. @ for Ine Boys IN ICELAND apparently little effect on enrollment which was more than four hundred in 1925, compel- ling the school to add more housing. During these early years as a college, many traditions developed, a student government was formed, and more social events planned. President Cole’s death in 1925 suddenly end- ed his twenty-eight years of leadership and guidance of Wheaton, transforming it from seminary to college. Unlike previous years, the loss of the school’s leader did not result in a crisis. President Cole had created a sys- tem at Wheaton that served both the present and the future. With a stable administration and faculty established, there was less oppor- tunity for problems to develop that could threaten the school’s future. In 1926 Rev. John Edgar Park became Whea- ton’s second President. President Park worked toward continuing and modernizing

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ree oe Tex lal HOR WSLS Ps THE SEM 3 HOWARD ST. (1834): Originally built on the site where the north wing of Mary Lyon Hall now stands, “The Sem” served as the original classroom building for Wheaton Female Seminary. Between 1849 and 1933, it has been moved three times across Howard St., and has stood in three different locations. Original- ly called Seminary Hall, the building has also been used as a straw hat factory (on Howard St., beginning in 1850), tenement, rented meeting hall, laundry (begin- ning in 1868 when it was attached to the rear of Old Metcalf Hall), gymnasium (prior to 1903), post office, infirmary, bookstore (between 1904-1933), student ac- tivities building (beginning in 1933 when it was moved to its present location on Howard St. and named by Pres. Park), dormitory (1956-1957), and home for faculty and staff (on the second floor, beginning in 1933, on both floors since 1958). PRESIDENT’S HOUSE (1829): Built by Laban Morey Wheaton for his bride Eliza Baylies Chapin, the house became the College President's residence upon the death of Eliza Wheaton in 1905. Laban M. Wheaton and his wife were the moving forces behind the founding of the Seminary; he was a trustee from 1834 until his death in 1865. The original three-story structure consisted of nine rooms, with an east wing containing a dining room, kitchen, pantries, and servants’ living quarters. The house now contains fifteen rooms, five bathrooms, and five hallways. There are three stairways in the house and one in the carriage house, more than eighty win- dows, twenty-three closets, and six entrances to the house. OLD METCALF HALL (1838): The first building used for student housing, the dormitory received several additions, which created a long, rambling wood frame structure parallel to Main St. The original section housed forty students and staff and contained the common dining room until Emerson Hall was built in 1908. The first addition, similar in size to the original building, was built in 1857 and ells off the back included The Sem from 1868 to 1933. At one time, the library and many administrative offices were housed in Old Met- calf. In 1922, Metcalf housed 90 people. Its first floor was nearly entirely devoted to administrative offices and public rooms. The original eastern portion of the building was called the “Boarding House,” and the western section the “New House” until in 1900 the name “Metcalf Hall” was given to the whole. Lucy Larcom occupied room number 48 on the second floor in the northwest corner of the “New House,” overlooking