USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 18
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Perhaps the best tribute to teachers and pupils alike is a glimpse, in this time of national crisis, of the unusual activities of the schools. In every instance teachers have been loyal. There has been no hint of enemy propaganda, though nearly all races are represented among the teaching force. Under such an in- spiration, the pupils have been as loyal. They have worked, in and out of
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school, for the common eause. The boys have cultivated war gardens and farms, and the girls have sewed and knitted for the Red Cross. There has been com- mendable activity and hard work in the raising of money for various purposes. The last report shows that $188,720 worth of Liberty Bonds have been pur- chased in the schools. Thrift stamps to the amount of $13,912 were taken. The contribution to the Y. M. C. A. was $6,288, and 416 joined the senior and 3,004 the junior Red Cross. There were given $3,850 from the High School for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Library Fund; $1,321.28 altogether for the relief of French children, for the Knights of Columbus Fund and for Red Cross seals, and $477.18 for various other causes. Over 20,000 knitted and sewed articles have been given. The school gardening has been faithful, intelligent and en- thusiastie. And by no means least if last, eight of the male teachers of the Iligh School have left their work to enter the war service of the United States.
Mention has elsewhere been made of the gradual development of the use of the school buildings for other purposes and at other times than the striet school hours. Sehool buildings have been opened, not only as community centers, but for dances, for Red Cross activities, for lectures on food conservation and good citizenship, as study rooms in congested districts, where home advantages were lacking to the pupils, for the use of exemption boards and as polling places. This last nse marks one of the greatest improvements in political procedure that has come to New Haven in the past two decades.
The attendance at the New Haven schools has from the first more than kept pace with the building facilities, notably so in the High School, as we have seen. With fifty-six buildings in all now at the command of the department, the attend- ance has been taken care of very well for the past year, without the addition of more buildings. But more are in progress. Plans and specifications for a com- mereial school building, accommodating 2,000 pupils, have been prepared, and contraet awarded and work begum, but for various reasons it has been halted. The city has also purchased a site for a new building in the Webster district, at the northeast corner of Howe and Oak streets, where a building will be con- structed as early as practicable.
III
Mention has elsewhere been made of the New Haven State Normal and Training School, a part of New Haven's public school system, though maintained by the state. It was established, as one of the state's teacher training schools. in 1900, and under the guidance of Arthur B. Morrill and an excellent corps of teachers, has sinee been contributing materially to the raising of the standard of common school education in Conneetient. Working in conjunction with the State Board of Education, the normal schools of Connecticut have steadily been seeking to replace the untrained teacher, throughout the state, with the graduates of these schools. As the quality of training given in these schools has risen with every passing year, this effort has resulted in an inereasing sueeess, Vol. 1-10
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and all but a very few of the schools of Connecticut are now supplied with graduates from either the Willimantic, the New Britain, the New Haven or the Danbury school.
Of these institutions the greatest success should be expected of New Haven, because of its location in a great center of education, and because of the valuable aid it gets from the New Haven schools. Four of the schools of the city, located near the normal school building, were set apart as "model" schools, the state paying the excess salary necessary to secure superior teachers in all their rooms. To these schools all second year pupils of the Normal School are sent on alternate months, and given practical experience and criticism in teaching. The result is as nearly an experienced produet as it is possible for a mere school to turn out.
The City of New Haven has the first selection from each graduating class, choosing from the New Haven pupils as many of those of highest standing as it needs to fill prospective vacancies in its schools. But the school exists to supply country as well as city vacancies, and country schools need the graduates most. So it is the especial effort of some of the teachers to enthuse the pupils with a love for the country school, and an appreciation of the opportunities for original work and high influence which it offers. It should be noted that this laudable effort has not been withont its marked success.
In many respects Westville has preferred to keep its own identity, and not the least of these is in its school management. Of the almost 37,000 children of school age now in the whole town of New Haven nearly 2,000 attend the schools of Westville. The district has three handsome and modern schoolhouses. The Edgewood School, which takes care of the population of the newer portion of Westville, is on Edgewood Avenne, not far from the point at which it erosses West River, and is, apparently, in the very edge of the Westville district. But the district extends to the east of the river, and apparently well into the city. It is a well built and finely appointed building, a credit to the district.
The L. Wheeler Beecher Memorial School is the newest of Westville's build- ings, situated far to the opposite edge of the section, on the upper part of Blake Street. It has seven rooms, and is in every way a modern building.
The Frances Benton Memorial School takes care of most of the older part of Westville, and has eight rooms. It adequately completes Westville's excellent outfit of schools. But the section is growing fast in population, and Westville knows that it will have to provide more schools at no very distant time.
William F. H. Breeze is at present the Westville superintendent.
The number of children attending the public schools in the year 1917 was 27,005. Besides these 4,184 were reported as attending private schools. Of these a very large percentage were, of course, in the parochial sehools, of which there are seven : Sacred Heart, St. Boniface, St. Francis, St. Mary's Academy and St. Mary's Parochial School, St. Peter's Parochial School and St. Rose's.
There are three other principal private schools, most of them for younger children. doing excellent work. Of these the best known are the Gateway School,
ST. FRANCIS ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. SCHOOL AND RECTORY, NEW HAVEN
ST. FRANCIS ORPHAN ASYLUM, NEW HAVEN
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conducted by Miss Alice Reynolds; Miss Mary S. Johnson's and the Barnes School. The Hebrew Institute does an excellent special work.
Some twenty years ago, when the physical culture movement first became popular, Dr. William G. Anderson, director of the Yale gymnasium, started a gymnastic training class for young ladies. It soon grew to a size which de- manded a gymnasium of its own, and Doctor Anderson built one on York Street. Alont 1907 it outgrew its quarters there, and Dr. E. Herman Arnold, who by this time had taken the business over from Doctor Anderson, the Anderson Gymnasium Company having been formed, moved it to a house which had been purchased near the corner of Chapel Street and Sherman Avenue. Here the enterprise Hossomed out as the New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics. Since that time the company has acquired five buildings on the Chapel Street and Sherman Avenne sides of this corner, and has built a large gymnasium, dining hall and dormitory besides. It is said to have a high standing among the schools of this nature in the country, training young women to be physical directors. and its graduates are in great demand.
The excellent instruction given by Joseph Giles, in his school in the Insur- ance Building, is remembered by some whose educational course was finished only a few years ago. Of tutoring schools New Haven always has, because of the presence of the university, an abundance. Of these the most important is the University School, which George L. Fox, long a well known New Haven educator, condnets. The Booth Preparatory School, and the Rosenbaum School, which has departments both in New Ilaven and Milford, are among the other schools of this elass.
There are two notable private musie schools, that of George Chadwick Stock and the New Haven School of Music.
Of business schools New Haven has some progressive representatives. One of the leaders, now making great strides in education of this sort, is the one formerly known as the Yale Business College. At the beginning of this period, when the chief advertisement if not the chief function of a business college was to teach flowery penmanship. R. C. Loveridge made the beginning of its fame. It prospered as the Yale Business College under various managements, and about 1907 it came into the hands of Nathan B. Stone, an able teacher and a good organizer. In 1916 he changed its name to the Stone Business College, and has continued it as a complete school of sterling business education which is a credit to its name.
The Butler Business School, conducted for some years in the Y. M. C. A. Building on Temple Street, has had a long and honorable existenee, and grounded hundreds of young people in efficient business practice. It is now conducted by Sidney Perlin Butler. The Connecticut Business University has been for several years conducted by Henry C. Tong, and is doing excellent work. The Stebbing Commercial and Secretarial School, in the Chamber of Commerce Building, has also a large business, and is said to be filling an excellent purpose in fitting for its specialty.
CHIAPTER XVII
NEW HAVEN'S LIBRARIES
TARDY APPEARANCE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND IT'S EARLY HISTORY-ERECTION OF THE NEW BUILDING-THE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BRANCHES AND USE
I
We may imagine that the greater part of the reading of New Haven previous to the opening of the nineteenth century was done by the students and graduates of Yale College. At any rate, the college library was made to suffice the com- munity up to that time. There seems soon after to have been a sufficient demand for books to promote the establishment of private societies for the purchase of books which their members used in turn. This was the crude formation of the private library. There were two of these in 1815, the Mechanies' Library and the Social Library. The members of the latter were very strict in their interpre- tation of literature, for by their constitution no "novel, play or tale" could be purchased except by a three-fourths vote of the members present. The two libraries together had a collection of books numbering 1,300 volumes. In 1826 the Young Men's Institute, another private library, was formed, and still exists. It has a strong foundation and support, and an excellent popular library, fitted to what its patrons believe to be their needs. Its location is at 847 Chapel Street. It has 27,438 volumes, and its additions in 1916 were 764. Its librarian is Abigail Dunn.
Under the impression, as are most of us, that the public library is a long established New England institution, we learn with some surprise that in New HIaven it runs baek only thirty-two years. Nor was New Haven so comparatively backward, for Bridgeport is the only city in the state that had one any carlier. The position taken by New Haven was that Yale University, with its notably large library, supplied all the needs not met by the private institutions. So the situation might have stood much longer than it did, had not New Haven found a library benefactor, and one, strange to say, who had but recently come to dwell in the eity.
Philip Marett was a Boston merchant who had accumulated a fortune in the East India trade, and when he was ready to retire, showed his great dis- erimination by choosing New Haven as the place for spending his leisure years. HIis coming was about 1852, and from the beginning of his acquaintance with the
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city he never ceased to marvel that such an intellectual center as New llaven had no public library after the manner of Boston. lle took no consequent action for fifteen years, however, but in 1867 he drew his will, disposing of a fortune of $650,000. Of that he gave one-tenth to the City of New Haven in trust, its income to be used "for the purchase of books for the Young Men's Institute, or any public library which may from time to time exist in said city." Mr. Marett died in 1869, but it was eleven years later before New Haven did any- thing looking toward the active improvement of the opportunity which he had opened.
In 1SSO Henry G. Lewis was mayor, and he took the bull by the horns. That year be called a meeting of the citizens for the purpose of starting a public library, that being the obvious action necessarily precedent to the utilizing of a fund for the purchasing of books for such an institution. At that meeting $1,600 was pledged, and citizens donated 300 books for a start. The city was asked to furnish quarters for the library. The Court of Common Council, ac- cordingly, graciously accepted the offer "to establish and maintain a free library," and granted the use of a room or rooms in the old State House for such a purpose. The old State House in 1880 was not in a condition to make it ideal for library use, but it was at least a local habitation.
Mayor Lewis at once appointed a committee to go ahead, making the number encouragingly thirteen. The committee determined to undertake the raising . of $100,000, by dividing the city into districts, and setting 400 canvassers at work. We may imagine that this task was a much greater one than that, thirty- five years later, of securing two and one-half times that sum for the New Haven Orphan Asylum. At any rate, the effort seems to have netted at the time only $5,535-in pledges only. However, the committee went ahead, put their 300 books in a room in the State House, and opened their library, with George Douglas Miller as librarian. But that was a ridiculously small collection for the time, and the most of the readers in the community, we may imagine, preferred to pay a little for the greater facilities of the Young Men's Institute. At all events, financial troubles came, and the required money came not, so the effort was abandoned after an indifferent year or so, and the precious 300 books were turned over for safe keeping to the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
ยท
It was nearly five years before anything more was done. In 1885, mere pride moved some of the citizens who realized that it was a shame for a city of 75,000 people, with a library fund at its disposal, to be without a public library. Perhaps nothing would have immediately resulted, even then, if the Young Men's Institute had not precipitated matters. It had a claim, it will be re- membered, on the Marett legacy. So to avoid complication, its directors voted to appoint a committee of five to confer with a city committee on the feasibility of turning the institute library over to the city, on condition that it be made a free public library. The Court of Common Council was petitioned to appoint such a committee, and Councilmen Burton Mansfield, George D. Watrons, Fitzpatrick and Tuttle, and Aldermen Whitney, States and Goebel were chosen. The com-
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mittee secured the authorization of a bond issue of $100,000 for the library pur- pose, and a sub-committee was appointed to complete the deal with the direetors of the Young Men's Institute. But the matter hung fire for a year, and no tangible results appeared.
Meanwhile, A. Maxey Hiller of the Council drew up and had passed a reso- lution inquiring why the contract had not been made in accordance with the Institute offer, and the president of the Council appointed Mr. Hiller and Councilman J. Rice Winchell a committee to answer the question by investiga- tion. They saw President Pardee of the Institute, and learned that a contract was being drawn up, and would soon be presented to the eity for acceptance. It was presented several months later. It provided that the Young Men's Insti- tute should lease all its books and property to the city for ten years; that the city should pay all the cost of maintaining the library; that the Young Men's Institute should have a majority on the board of directors; and that the contract might be renewed or dissolved at the pleasure of either party at the expiration of the ten years.
There were reasons why this did not seem to the Council a good plan for the city. Some discerning members saw wherein this fell short of being a free public library. The outcome was that the Council amended the contract so as to provide that if the Young Men's Institute turned its property over to the City of New Haven, it should be permanently, not for a term of ten years, with a string attached. Whereupon the directors of the Institute withdrew their offer . and contract, and voted that their library should continue to be a private in- stitution. Sueh it is up to the present time, serving an excellent purpose and doing a good work for those who sufficiently appreciate a good library to pay a small annual sum for its privileges.
But this did not get a free public library for New Ilaven. The matter had been sufficiently agitated, however, so that public sentiment warranted the Council in going ahead with the matter, which it did, under the leader- ship of Councilmen Ililler and Winchell, to whom dne eredit shoukl be given. The former at once introduced a resolution providing that the city establish a free publie library under the statute laws, and it was passed with an amend- ment that the number of directors be ten. Therewith went an appropriation of $13,000 to start the library, and the thing was really begun.
The first board of directors. appointed by the Hon. George F. Holcomb, who had succeeded the Hon. Henry G. Lewis as mayor, consisted of these men: His Honor, the Mayor, James N. States, Charles Kleiner, Charles S. Mersiek, Joseph Porter, Prof. Charles S. Ilastings, Burton Mansfield, Hon. John II. Leeds, Frank L. Bigelow and Cornelius T. Driscoll. Mr. Leeds was chosen president of the board, and Burton Mansfield secretary and treasurer. Willis K. Stetson was ehosen librarian, and has continued to serve up to this time, an honored period of thirty-two years, for this foundation was laid in 1886.
The matter of site was the first problem. The old State House was about to be torn down. The New Haven Colony Historical Society, which had the
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few books, had then no facilities which it could offer the eity. After some search, rooms in the Sheffield Building on Chapel Street, between Orange and State, were decided on as most available, and the directors took a ten years' lease of them. There the library was opened to the public on the 21st day of February, 1887. Its beginning was small, but its prosperity has ever since been continuous. There is abundant evidence that New Haven appreciated its long delayed free library privilege.
But it wanted also a building. The days of second-floor libraries, in rented rooms, were past. So within two years we find the directors deciding to take advantage of the deferred privilege of a $100,000 bond issue to secure the building. The Chapel Street quarters, we are told, had become wholly inad- equate, because of the demand for library privileges. There seems to have been little serious thought of building, however. That would take time, and there was the now abandoned Third Church Building, admirably sitnated, and offering facilities which could be made available at the expenditure of a com- paratively small amount of time and money. The property was purchased by the city in 1889. The purchase price was $71,000, and good judges estimated that at that time it was worth at least $90.000. It had not, of course, depre- ciated any in value when nearly thirty years later the city disposed of it jointly to the United States Government and the Second National Bank. The govern- ment building and the bank building together take up the space of the old library. In this remodeled church building, which, all things considered, made a good library building, the New Haven Public Library found a home in 1891, and was opened to the public on January 2.
Meanwhile, two years earlier, the last heir of Philip Marett had passed away, and the tenth of his property was to come to the City of New Haven, "to buy books for the Young Men's Institute or any public library which may from time to time exist." The state of feeling between the directors of the Young Men's Institute and the directors of the young public library was not then, as we may imagine, of the best. The former felt that their claim in this money was too good to be overlooked, and brought suit to compel the City of New Haven to spend this money for their library instead of for the public library. The suit was not, however, fought out in the courts. The more dignified plan was agreed upon by both parties of submitting it to the decision of the Supreme Court of Conneetient. Ex-Governor Charles R. Inger- soll argned the ease for the Young Men's Institute, and Judge William K. Townsend and Burton Mansfield for the City of New Haven. The judges decided nnanimously that the newly established free public library was entitled to the ineome of the fund, and the city has so used the money ever since.
The new library was not, however, to hear the Marett or any name exeept that of the City of New Haven. Due eredit is given to the donor of the book fund by a book plate in every volume bought with it, however. New Haven had founded the library, late as the action was, and New Haven had provided
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the building. When the purchase and remodeling of the old church had been completed, the library board had $4,456.28 left. It had been struggling along, in its old quarters, with an appropriation of about $3,000 a year. When the library was first opened, in the rented quarters on Chapel Street, it had 3,500 books with which to supply the reading needs of a city of 85,000 people. It was necessary to send each book around the circuit three times a month to meet the demand. Extra books were at once purchased from an appropria- tion of $3,000, but these were inadequate. It was not until the new quarters were seenred and the Marett fund made available that the library was able to begin to keep up with the legitimate demands of the New Haven publie.
Those demands were never relaxed. The community had waited rather over- long, and the people were hungry for good reading. The circulation steadily and rapidly increased in the new building. It has continued to increase ever since. It has developed along other lines than the mere drawing of books. It was planned, of course. to open a reading room as soon as the building was refitted. but the directors did not anticipate the extensive use of it which im- mediately developed. As early as 1893 the directors reported that the de- mands of the public in this respect had caused them to make plans for a larger reading room or rooms. The next year those plans were carried out, and their extent may be inferred from the fact that $3,500 was spent. But even this was not long adequate, and a separate periodical room had to be opened the next year, what had been the church leeture room on the second floor being utilized.
It was in 1894 that the separate children's room was opened, the library being among the first of the country in this improvement. This made possible another improvement, inaugurated the following year, namely, the open shelf plan. At that time all the shelves of the library were thrown open to the adult users, and they were permitted to select for themselves. The librarians reported the plan to be a success. The losses, they said, were small, and easily replaced, while the advantages were very material, both in eneouraging the use of the library in the freest sense, and in the saving of labor for the at- tendants. That open shelf plan is continued with suceess up to the present, though the more intricate layout of the stacks in the new building requires considerable assistance from those familiar with the library, and some depart- ments are of such a nature as to make the open shelf plan impracticable. It is recognized, however, that there is a great gain from the viewpoint of at- tracting the public in the degree of freedom allowed in public access to the shelves.
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