isua-alumniassociation-directory-1930-014

Description:	xiv THE ALUMNI DIRECTORYINDIANA STATE TEACHERS COLLEGEHistorical.—The Indiana State Teachers College opened its doorsand began its work in the preparation of teachers for the commonschools of Indiana on the morning of January 6, 1870. The schoolwas created by an act of the General Assembly approved December20, 1865. This act clearly defined the object of the school, authorizedthe appointment of a Board of Trustees and appropriated money forthe erection of a building and for further maintenance. The act didnot, however, state where the institution should be located but itprovided that it should be placed in that town or city of the State thatshould obligate itself to give the largest amount in cash or buildings andgrounds to secure the school. It is a matter of interest to note thatthe city of Terre Haute was the only city in the State which made anoffer to secure the new school. The city of Terre Haute offered togive a tract of land near the heart of the city and $50,000 in cash andto obligate itself further to maintain forever one-half the necessaryexpense of keeping the buildings and grounds in repair. This offer wasaccepted and the school was located here.One large school building was constructed which seemed at the timeof its erection to be fully ample to care for the needs of the school formany years to come. Indeed, for a number of years the Terre HauteHigh School was housed in the same building with the State TeachersCollege. The increasing work of the College, however, made it necessary after several years to have the entire building at its disposal andso the city of Terre Haute built its own high school, now known asWiley High School.On the forenoon of April 9, 1888, this original building was totallydestroyed by fire. The fire occurred while the school was in session butmost fortunately teachers and students were able to leave the buildingand no lives were lost, but in the hurried exit from the building, it wasimpossible to save anything of its contents. The library, the furniture,the apparatus, the museum, even the records—the accumulation ofeighteen years of work—were consumed. It seemed as if the Collegehad been wiped out. However, before the smoke had cleared away fromthe ruins, Terre Haute and its citizenship had provided temporary quarters for the school and the evening papers carried the announcementto bewildered students that school would be resumed the followingmorning. An entire floor in the Wiley High School was set apart forthe Teachers College and churches and other public halls opened theirdoors as class-rooms for the school. The city of Terre Haute promptlygave $50,000 in cash with which to begin the work of rebuilding. TheGeneral Assembly appropriated $100,000 for the completion of thebuilding which is now known as Main Hall.With the growth of the school new buildings have been added fromtime to time. A large modern Training School was built on Mulberrystreet. This practice school maintains all the eight grades and a four-year commissioned high school and has every advantage to carry on thework of supervised teaching.A few years later what is now known as North Hall was constructed which contained for a number of years the rapidly growing
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/38155
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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