2021-College-Report

hi story of the college 1 903 - 1885 - Summer Chautauquas begin on the hill in San Marcos that becomes known as Chautauqua Hill. - 1899 - Southwest Texas State Normal School is founded by the 26th Texas Legislature to be built on 11 acres on Chautauqua Hill donated by the City of San Marcos. - 1903 - The Main Building is finished. (pictured) Today, Old Main houses the College of Fine Arts and Communication Advising Center, Office of the Dean, and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. - The Normal opens to 303 students taught by 17 faculty including Mary Stuart Butler (Music), Annie Pearsall (Drawing), and Lula Hines (later known as the “founder of theatre at SWT”). Her reading department develops into the Department of Speech and Drama. Classes in rhetoric are part of the required English curriculum. - Students and teachers form three music associations: the Mendelssohn Club (men and women), Schubert Club (women), and the Glee Club (men). The Shakespeare Society (women) promotes college drama. (pictured) - 1904 - The Chautauqua Literary Society is the first debate club, followed quickly by the rival Harris-Blairs. The first Pedagogue (yearbook) is published; it prints annually until 1975. - 191 1 - The first Normal Star prints on June 30 with T.H. Leslie as editor. - 1912 - The building now called Lampasas Hall is built to house Manual Arts, Home Economics, a cafeteria, and Art. The Art Department remains there until the Fine Arts building (now Taylor-Murphy) in completed in 1951. The first annual senior play, A Bond of the Spirit , the 1 903 1 92 2 first presentation of legitimate drama, is staged with numerous students and faculty involved. - 1914 - The English Department adds three courses: Drama Before Shakespeare, Modern Drama, and Shakespeare. - 1918 - The name of Southwest Texas State Normal School changes to Southwest Texas State Normal College to reflect its status as a degree-granting institution. - 1919 - Mamie Brown from San Marcos becomes the first person to earn a bachelor’s degree at the college. She is a singer with the Mendelssohn Club and the Liberty Chorus. - College enrollment hits a high of 1,386 in the summer of 1917, only to plummet to 650 in the summer of 1919, a result of the Great War and the flu epidemic. - The Bobcat Band is founded with 22 musicians and 11 instruments furnished as state expense. The band’s first performance is at a football game with the San Marcos Baptist Academy in November. D.D. Snow is its first director. - The Rabbit’s Foot Dramatic Club, the first theatre club, is organized and presents Why the Chimes Rang . - 1921 - The Normal presents its first musical comedy, The Gypsy Rover . - 1922 - The first art association, the Art Lover’s Club, is established proclaiming “an interest in, and love of, the beautiful.” (pictured) - 1923 - Southwest Texas State Normal College becomes Southwest Texas State Teachers College; the 1 92 3 school newspaper Normal Star becomes the College Star on October 6. - The Bobcat Band (pictured) gets its first permanent director when President Cecil Evans hires Robert Tampke for that purpose. He serves as bandmaster until 1948, as chair of Music 1933-56 and retires in 1973. - 1927 - Lyndon Johnson (pictured) enrolls at the Teachers College; he serves two terms as editor of the College Star , one as president of the Press Club, and excels on the debate team. - 1928 - The Bobcat Band gets its first uniforms. - J.W. Dunn replaces the Rabbit’s Foot Dramatic Club with the College Theatre, which has two subgroups – the Apprentice Players and the College Players. - Lyndon Johnson lobbies the college to offer a journalism course. Dean A.H. Nolle agrees, as long as enough students enroll to justify a class. Johnson recruits four other students, Nolle approves the class, and the journalism program is born. - Hollywood freelance cameraman Jack Holman films 10 students in the first movie set on campus, San Marcos Sheik . - 1929 - College enrollment continues fairly steady through the Depression, often more than 2,000 students, only to plummet to 650 in the summer of 1945. - Monroe Lippman , takes the play Kempy on “tour.” They go to Navarro High School, 31 miles away. Student Lyndon Johnson is publicity director for the show. - 1930 - The Public Speaking and Dramatics Department becomes the Speech Arts Department with speech arts becoming a minor for a degree in English. 1 92 7 1 9 4 6 - 1937 - Bachelor’s degree in music is approved. - 1938 - Music moves into Music Hall, a wooden frame building that had been a boarding house; it is moved to the site of current Taylor-Murphy and renovated. - Bachelor’s degree in speech is approved (later communication studies). - 1939 - The Academic Laboratory School (later named the Evans Academic Center) and auditorium are built. The Theatre program moves there from Old Main for the next seven years while the Little Theatre is built in Old Main. - 1940 - Bachelor’s degree in art is approved. - 1942 - John Garland Flowers becomes president and spearheads a progression of SWT from a teachers college to a regional multipurpose institution. - Journalism is included in the name of the department: English, Journalism, and Speech. - 1946 - Elton Abernathy (pictured) joins the faculty as chair of the Speech Department (later Speech and Drama) and remains in that post until 1973. - 1947 - The Journalism Department is established. - James Barton joins the faculty and is named director of Theatre (part of the Speech Department), a post he holds until 1975. - Ira Bowles joins the music faculty as director of choirs. He serves as chair of the Music Department (1957-68). 22 ■ C O L L E G E R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 ■ 23