opening day, September 6th of that year, was twenty-seven students, the faculty numbered five. In 1901 the enrollment was 2,017 teachers’ grade, and three hundred and fifty-six in the training school. The institution sends out annually some two hundred graduates. The total number of graduates since the organization is 1,947. The buildings formerly used for the Orphans’ Home were, by act of the General Assembly, transferred to the use of the Normal School and the institution in the beginning received a biennial appropriation of $14,500. In 1882 the Trustees discontinued graduation at the end of the second year and gave diplomas only at the end of the third or fourth years. This same year the General Assembly so far recognized the growth and needs of this institution as to appropriate $30,000 for the building of South Hall which contains library, chapel, laboratories, etc.
“The erection of this building marked an era in the history of the school; with its completion the preliminary stages were passed and the institution emerged from its experimental existence,” says Henry Sabin. In 1887 a course especially designed for high school teachers was instituted. The entire course of study was revised to make it harmonize with the law for State certificates and diplomas and a course for college graduates was established. In 1888, by act of the General Assembly, the Superintendent of Public Instruction was made president and member ex-officio of the Board of Directors. On a campus dotted with beautiful trees stand the four large school buildings interspersed with residences of the faculty and smaller buildings. The value of the entire equipment, buildings, furniture and grounds is estimated at $321,342.00. While the income resulting from the levy of one-tenth mill tax provided for by the Twenty-ninth General Assembly will bring the building fund up to $300,000 insuring great improvements. The income of the biennial period ending with June, 1902, amounted to $242,800.
