USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 29
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Lighter recreation was easy to obtain. There were in- viting rambles in all directions and long tramps for the restless and vigorous. One could go down to Crockett's
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Corner and Low Plain and back by Seaman's Road, or down the long hill to Pleasant Lake and around to El- kins, or around Little Sunapee and home by Burpee Hill. It was six miles to Lakeside by way of Columbus Avenue and return, or one could walk all the way to George's Mills and back and so tap the big lake at that end. To view Mount Kearsarge daily and not have an urge to climb was impossible for Colby girls; they re- vived the old custom of Mountain Day and made their way to the top with all the old enthusiasm. The only drawback was the absence of the boys and the old barges that held four on a seat. The rear seat was always at a premium and the question "Who're you goin' with?" was heard frequently on the campus before the advent of the day. In those days invitations from the boys to the girls had to be handed to the lady principal, who read them and passed them on to the proper recipient. Re- plies must be sent by the same route. But that was in the dark ages of the nineteenth century.
Three annual events were established almost from the beginning of the college. The first Parents' Day was in- troduced on Columbus Day, 1928; a year later one hun- dred parents and friends visited the hill over the week- end set aside for the purpose. A second event was May Day. Students made research in the old English customs, reproduced the crowning of a May queen, and danced on the campus around a maypole, staging charming effects with their pageantry. Winter carnival was held over a week-end in February. Then they entertained with outings and dinner parties, and had their musicales and tea dances. The crowning event was a formal carni- val ball at which the belles of New Hampshire and Vermont towns vied with the sub-debutantes of Boston and New York suburbs. One of the carnival programmes began with a sleigh-ride to George's Mills and a chicken pie supper, then back to the college for a musical com-
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edy, "The Singer of the Samovar." On Saturday winter sports were the order of the forenoon, followed by a noon luncheon in the town hall. The afternoon brought a tea dance and the evening the carnival ball. It would have been comfortable to lie abed the next morning, but attendance at church was part of the programme, and at least it was not strenuous.
The modern girl demands abundant recreation, but the college girl could not neglect her studies if she would, and special inducements were offered to incite her to do her best. By 1931 the division was made sharply between the preparatory classes and the junior college. The four years' preparatory course was still given, and a course of four years' academic instruction for students who did not expect to go on to college. Juniors and seniors in these courses ranked as freshmen and sophomores in the college. Those not so far along were merely preparatory students. In that year there were twenty students thus classified as preparatory, eighteen freshmen and twenty-four sophomores. Seventy- seven juniors and fifty-two seniors were enrolled in the college courses; thirty-four graduated in June. The largest number of students, one hundred and one strong, came from Massachusetts. New Hampshire had thirty- three to its credit, while Vermont and Connecticut were each represented by thirteen. About thirty more came from other states, making a total registration of one hundred and ninety-one.
The list of subjects in the various courses was length- ening steadily, and the members of the faculty were in- creasing in number. In the fall of 1929 four were added to the board of instruction. Gladys E. Webber came from Boston University and Radcliffe to take charge of the courses in history, economics and sociology; Marion D. Brown of Colby College and Boston Uni- versity arrived to give courses in religion; Eleanor Dodd
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of Boston University came to teach French and Latin. Laura G. Shields, of the New England Conservatory, received the appointment for the teaching of music. In the following year Guy F. Williams of Bates and Yale assumed charge of the department of science; Emily R. Squires from North Dakota and Brown came to teach English, and Viola Pfrommer, trained at the Posse-Nissen School in Boston, took the responsibility of physical education. Every year saw the addition of new teachers, among whom was J. Duane Squires, a graduate of the University of North Dakota and a recent doctor of philosophy from Harvard. He soon proved himself a worker in college, church and community, with history, economics and international relations as his field of educational interest.
The college catalogue specified accounting, anatomy, art, biology, business administration, calculus, chemis- try, economics, English, ethics, French, geometry, Ger- man, history, Latin, mathematical analysis, music, office training, philosophy, physical education, secretarial prac- tice, sociology and stenography. Besides the officers of instruction the administrative staff included a librarian and assistant, a registrar, a secretary to the President, a dietitian, a college nurse, a superintendent of buildings and grounds, an engineer and a night watchman. All these were evidence that Colby Junior College was a going concern and that it had a future of great promise as well as almost a hundred years of history.
In order to spur the students to scholastic endeavor a dean's list was prepared of those who maintained an average of eighty-five per cent. To these persons special privileges were granted. By 1933 a considerable number of prizes were being offered for various kinds of effort. Two of these were due to the direct interest of the trus- tees. First, there were five prizes of ten dollars each for juniors and seniors who had attained to highest excel-
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lence in at least two of a group of selected studies, including English, foreign languages, science and mathe- matics, social sciences and religion. Second was the Colby award, made in recognition of an outstanding contribu- tion to the development of student life. This was the highest distinction of the college. It consisted of an invitation to return as a week-end guest of the college with traveling expenses paid from any point in New England.
Several prizes were offered by friends and individual trustees. The Clough Prize of twenty-five dollars was awarded to the sophomore who made the greatest im- provement during two years at Colby. The Shepard Prize of twenty-five dollars was awarded for the best hymn composed under the direction of the Department of Music. This prize was offered by Charles E. Shepard in memory of his father, James Eli Shepard, who for many years was a trustee of the academy and had paid tuition for the members of his growing family over a term of twenty-five years. The Athletic Association Prize of twenty-five dollars was for the best all-around girl, to be decided by the faculty. James G. Harris '95 offered a Scholarship Prize of ten dollars for high scholarship to a sophomore intending to go to college, and a Secre- tarial Science Prize of the same amount for conspicuous excellence in the whole field of secretarial science. The James H. Burpee prizes of fifteen, ten, and five dollars were available annually after a prize speaking contest. In 1932 these went first to Zara Krasnow for her recita- tion of "Run Queek, Rosie," second to Peggy Chandler, who recited "At the Swimming Pool," and third to Doris Anderson for her rendition of "Matchmaking." The Young Women's Christian Association and the Student Council sponsored a contest for the best original song. The Department of Physical Education awarded a Pos- ture Medal for the greatest improvement in posture.
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Mrs. Edward MacDowell of Peterboro gave the Mac- Dowell Prize for the greatest talent as exhibited in a com- position for voice, piano or violin. In 1931-32 the Atlan- tic Monthly arranged a prize essay contest for college stu- dents, and third prize was awarded to Marian P. Wiggin of Colby for an essay entitled "No One Knows." A Young Women's Christian Association scholarship was awarded on Commencement Day in 1935. Other com- petitions were arranged as time passed. A Music Club was organized and three prizes were offered. One of these was a "Pep" song and was won by Mildred Messer. The "Blue and White" song won a prize for Elizabeth Gay. "Green Hills" won a third prize for Virginia Allen.
Interest in Spanish was fostered by a Spanish Club, and a medal was offered by the club for the best essay on Cervantes. An Art Club matched the Music Club, and an International Relations Club was a special feature alongside the Spanish Club. The International Rela- tions Club was composed of students of honor rank who were specially interested in history and politics. In- terest was kept up by occasional lectures by speakers sent by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with which the club was affiliated. As if these organizations were not enough a Science Club was formed, and of course there must be an Outing Club in any lively girls' college.
The Young Women's Christian Association formed discussion groups, with speakers from the faculty and from ministers and business men outside of New Lon- don, and vesper services were held in the college chapel. A typical Y. W. C. A. meeting first held a business ses- sion, then spent some time learning a new "Y" song written by Laura Shields; then the company divided into three groups and discussed "Morals," "How we can know God better," and "How we can know one an-
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other better." The Association issued The Guidepost to interpret its significance.
The ebullient spirits of two hundred and fifty girls found expression in a bewildering variety of ways. There were organizations and groups enough to promote all sorts of enterprises. A moving picture of events shows how much they had to enjoy. Before the college had grown so large in 1930-31 they were presenting Christmas tableaux of famous paintings of madonnas, and on an- other evening a morality play. A Czecho-Slovak evening brought Mrs. Stella Marek Cushing with lecture and music, and on another occasion Rasma Brekters, a Lat- vian student who had graduated from Newton Theologi- cal Institution, sang and spoke in costume. An Indian folklore evening presented Ataloa, a full-blooded Indian princess, who had a master of arts degree from Columbia University. A lecture on "Women in Athletics" was delivered by Fritz Nissen of the Posse-Nissen School in Boston.
The college glee club was a flourishing organization, and Dartmouth College was near enough to arrange joint concerts with the Colby girls. Even Harvard and Boston University were not so far away that they could not do the same. Plans were made for a joint rendering of the Messiah by the Colby club and forty members of the Boston University Graduate Musical Association. Five concerts were given during the winter. The first was at New Hampton, where the Colby and New Hamp- ton clubs sang. The second was at New London, when the boys of Phillips Andover Academy gave a joint con- cert with the Colby Glee Club. Then followed three col- lege concerts, one when the Colby girls went to Newport and joined with the Dartmouth Glee Club, a second at New London, when the Boston University Glee Club visited the hill and aided the local club, and a fifth at New London when Colby and Dartmouth joined forces.
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These joint concerts furnished good training in concert work, pleased the audiences, and incidentally widened the acquaintance and gratified the social desires of the college men and women.
A series of tea dances attracted the friends of the junior college. At the first of these music was furnished by the "Green Vagabonds" of Dartmouth. On special occasions groups of Colby girls visited Hanover and shared in the thrills of a senior college of men. Besides the glee club concerts the college imported a string quartette, and Mildred Messer gave a recital assisted by violin and piano.
The custom of inviting parents to the hill for a week- end visit promoted acquaintance and understanding, and introduced the fathers and mothers of the girls to the attractiveness of New London and vicinity. On one Saturday they were invited to join in a motor trip to the famous St. Gaudens studio at Cornish, and upon their return were treated to a buffet supper in the new Colby Hall. This was followed by moving pictures of India and the Philippines with a lecture by Miss Carolyn Smiley. Family Day was observed at the church on Sunday forenoon. At five o'clock a musical recital was enjoyed, and on Monday there were inter-class hockey games.
Not long afterward came a Russian night at Tracy Memorial Hall which had been fitted up by Mrs. Jane Tracy as a part of the library center. Miss Margaret Hamp of Andover and Cambridge told of her experi- ences in a five months' stay on a government farm, where she cooked and taught the people how to drive trucks and tractors. Colby singers with Miss Shields at the piano furnished Russian music. Then came an evening when Mrs. Hoh Yam Tong made China and her people real. Jennie Lee of the University of Edinburgh, a Labor member of the British Parliament, spoke in the
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Whipple Memorial Town Hall on "The Outlook of the Post-War Generation." This beautiful brick building had been erected by Sherman Whipple, Colby '77, in memory of his brother, Amos Whipple, and their boy- hood days in New London. These entertainments were soon followed by more prosaic addresses, when Judge Emma F. Schofield of Boston spoke on "Every Day Law for Women," and Reverend Allyn K. Foster of the Bap- tist Board of Education enlightened the young women on points of contact between science and religion.
Lest Colby become too serious minded the Rouge Pot presented "The Boy Comes Home" - it would not have been interesting if it had been a girl - and the class in dramatics played "The Wicked Witch" at a woman's club entertainment for one hundred children at the town hall. Then came an art exhibition of one hundred and fifty reproductions of masterpieces of art, and soon afterward the students and faculty had a basket ball contest in which the girls defeated the women of the faculty by a score of fourteen to eight. A ping pong tournament seemed like an anticlimax but it provoked admiration for the skill of the participants. Then came an auction of unmarked laundry.
If a member of the class of fifty years before could have watched this contest and shared in the other events of the kaleidoscopic calendar, she would have wondered at the accelerated pace of school life on the hill and would probably have wondered how class work could receive any attention with all this diversion, but the girls of Colby Junior College took it all in their stride.
Sixty-five freshmen had to be initiated in the fall of 1931. The woes of Freshman Week were related two years afterward by the class historian. "We were told to wear black cotton stockings and serge bloomers under our dresses, while carrying our books in flannel pajamas. Above Turkish towels, bearing the names of the wearers
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and the small home towns of which they had once been so proud, our faces showed peaked and pale. Our once beautifully permanented hair, now cruelly braided, was tied with green cambric. Even the weather was in col- laboration with the mighty seniors. All that week the sky maintained that spotless blue color which only a New London sky can attain, to spite us for having to carry umbrellas at all times."
Another event recorded by the same historian reads: "One of the most impressive ceremonies of the year was the installation of officers held one night after study hour. It was a gorgeous night. The moon, round and yellow, rose over the horizon just as the old Concord stage drove up in front of Colgate Hall. The old offi- cers, dressed in old-fashioned full skirts and pantaloons with tiny straw hats atop of their heads, which would persist in slipping, sat on top, and the incoming officers, dressed in white sport clothes, rode inside. Standing between rows of Japanese lanterns the old officers sur- rendered their duties. The retiring officers then re- turned to the stagecoach, and the new rode away in automobiles."
The rapid growth of the college made it necessary to take account of stock and see what should be done about new buildings. Scarcely had Mckean Hall been opened when it became apparent that another building must be erected. Miss Colgate gave fifteen thousand dollars for the purpose, and the income of the college made it reasonable to expect that the rest of the expense could be met soon. The new building, located between Mckean Hall and the highway, was a companion to McKean, simply but beautifully built of brick with granite trimmings. It measured eighty-seven by forty- three feet. On the first floor was a teacher's room and ac- commodations for ten girls, a reception hall and parlor. On the second floor one teacher and twenty girls were
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provided for, and on the third floor almost as many more. The building was dedicated in 1931 and was named Colby Hall in honor of the New London family that had meant so much in the history of the school. William Col- gate Colby, who was one of the trustees, agreed to repair- the old Colby Hall, its use to be determined by the trus- tees. The Board put on record that the number of stu- dents should be limited to two hundred.
Space still remained in the crescent of buildings for another dormitory between Colgate Hall and the gymna- sium. The Baptist Board of Education was willing to underwrite such a building to the extent of twenty-five thousand dollars with the understanding that if the in- come of the college should be sufficient to meet the ex- pense, the Board of Education would be released from its obligation. The trustees therefore voted to spend forty thousand dollars on the new structure. It was started promptly and on Armistice Day, 1932, Shepard Hall was dedicated. The special day was designated as Trustees' Day. From nine to eleven in the forenoon classes were visited, at 11.30 everybody gathered in chapel for devotions, and lunch followed. The afternoon began with music and drama in Colgate Hall, and at two o'clock came the exercises of dedication of the new Shepard Hall. Josiah E. Fernald of the Board presided. Mrs. James Eli Shepard was guest of honor. Charles E. Shep- ard presented a portrait of his father to hang in the corridor of the building. Dr. William A. Hill delivered the address of dedication, Wilfred E. Burpee offered prayer, and Fred S. Heath, also of the Board of Trustees, related the history of Shepard Hall. Three teachers and forty-four girls could be taken care of in the new build- ing. There was a large living room with colonial fire- place, and a green color scheme was worked out by the art class. An art club room was fitted up in the base- ment. Another improvement was the transformation of
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the former power house plant into a music studio stand- ing in the rear of Colgate Hall. After the dedicatory exercises were over a musical tea provided for refresh- ments, while exercise was encouraged with an invitation to inspect the buildings and new equipment. Dinner came at 5.30, at eight o'clock a Dartmouth-Colby Glee Club concert furnished entertainment, and dancing fol- lowed for an hour with open house at all dormitories.
The trustees had requested the Legislature to grant them the right to give the degree of Associate in Arts, such as is customary in a junior college, and in 1932 it was voted to change the name from Colby School for Girls to Colby Junior College for Women. The peti- tion was granted by the following act signed by Governor John G. Winant, Louis P. Elkins, the speaker of the House, and George D. Cummings, the president of the Senate:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
"1. Name changed. The name of Colby Academy in the town of New London, incorporated under an act approved July 4, 1837, entitled 'An Act to incorporate New London Academy,' the name of said corporation having been changed by acts approved July 13, 1854, July 13, 1855, and July 15, 1878, is hereby changed to Colby Junior College for Women. All property now held by said Colby Academy shall be held by Colby Junior College for Women sub- ject to the terms of the various bequests and donations in any instrument creating the same, with the same powers, duties and obligations of the Colby Academy.
"2. Takes effect. This act shall take effect upon its passage."
Samuel Best of Malden was added to the Board of Trustees and Charles W. Tobey was chosen an honorary trustee. The trustees voted to discontinue the ninth grade after 1932 and the tenth grade a year later. A course was authorized in home organization and soon afterward a medical secretary course. By this time the library was reorganized with a library committee of the
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faculty looking out for its interests. For the present the books were kept in Colgate Hall. It was hoped that a library building might be erected in the near future for the five thousand books that were on the shelves.
A rainbow of promise was arching over the campus on the hill.
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T IHE remarkable success of the new experiment compelled the trustees to plan in more ample fashion than before. They appointed a committee to study critically the location of five more buildings in co-operation with the library committee, and a com- mittee was appointed to devise ways and means for fur- ther building. The programme called for a dormitory for forty girls besides a new library building by Sep- tember, 1934. Looking ahead four years it seemed as if it might be possible to make a drive for half a million endowment before the one hundredth commencement in 1937.
The planning committee decided that it was best to combine library and dormitory in one building, and the construction of the first unit of Burpee Hall was author- ized, provided the student enrollment seemed to justify it. It was expected that Burpee Hall would be the first structure on a new quadrangle in the rear of the older buildings. Meanwhile William C. Colby and his two sisters, Misses Jessie and May Colby, who had taken up their residence on the former Herrick estate, gave a tract on the shore of Little Sunapee for the use of the Athletic Association. The trustees voted to purchase the Forester property adjoining the campus, if it could be financed by a readjustment of the mortgage on the Inn property. It was debated whether or not to make over Colby Hall into apartments for renting. An electric refrigeration plant was authorized at an expense of one thousand dollars.
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Not the least interesting of the changes that were oc- curring in the buildings was the transformation of Colby Hall into Colby Athletic Lodge in the woods on the shore of Little Sunapee. This was made possible by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Josiah E. Fernald of Con- cord. The trustees had considered the construction of an athletic society cabin at Keyser Lake, but Little Suna- pee was more accessible and the Colby gift of land made the nearer location possible. The contract for recon- struction was given to Horace C. Stanley, who took down the old Colby Hall and used the beams, which had been put into the building when it was the town's first meeting-house, as the framework of the new Lodge. A large living-room thirty by forty feet constituted the main part of the Lodge with a kitchen adjoining and a loft upstairs for sleeping purposes. A wide porch over- looking the lake added to the attractiveness of the build- ing, and an eight foot fireplace was provided to make the building comfortable in cold weather.
On the third of June, 1934, students and friends went to the lake for the dedication. President Sawyer presided and after music and prayer Dr. J. Duane Squires read a paper written by Oren D. Crockett, which gave a history of the building that for sixty-five years served as meeting- house and town hall on Cemetery Hill and then for seventy-four years housed the academy on Colby Hill. How many times the old rafters had rung with songs of praise and political excitement and the rollicking jollity of irrepressible boys, and now it was to minister to the enjoyment of girls by the lake where boys and girls both had liked to roam. After further remarks, music, and the presentation of keys Mr. Crockett lighted a fire in the fireplace and Edith Spurr recited "The Sacrament of Fire."
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