The CARNEGIE LIBRARY, NW. corner Poyntz Ave. and 5th St., erected in 1904, is a two-story brick and limestone building of neoclassic design. Operated as a municipal library, it contains 30,000 volumes.
The FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NW. corner Poyntz Ave. and 6th St., erected in 1925, is of English Gothic design, constructed of native limestone. In the church is the old bell of the steamer Hartford that brought the settlers from Cincinnati in 1855. The original congregation was organized in 1858.
ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SW. corner Poyntz Ave. and 6th St., built in 1865 of native limestone, was designed by Richard Upjohn. It is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.
CITY PARK, nth St., between Poyntz Ave. and Fremont St., is a 45-acre tract equipped with playgrounds, a swimming pool, and tennis courts. It is attractively landscaped, containing approximately 1,000 trees. Near the Leavenworth Street entrance is a band pavilion with a seating capacity of 1,000, erected under the sponsorship of the Manhattan Ministerial Alliance, where band concerts and open-air church services are held during the summer. Rose gardens, sponsored by the Manhattan Kiwanis Club and a rock garden sponsored by the Rotary Club attract visitors from all parts of the country.
Near the center of the park is the TATARRAX MONUMENT, a shaft of grey marble, ten feet high, resting on a truncated base of limestone four feet high. The monument was designed by J. V. Brower, one of the founders of the Quivira Historical Society.
An OLD STAGECOACH, formerly used in Yellowstone Park, stands just west of the monument. It was donated to the city by the Union Pacific Railroad. Near the stagecoach is the LOG CABIN MUSEUM; containing a number of pioneer relics.
The KANSAS STATE COLLEGE, 14th and Anderson Sts., has an attractively landscaped 155-acre campus on which there are twenty buildings of native limestone construction and modified Gothic design.
In 1857 an association was formed to build a college in or near Manhattan. Under the direction of the Reverend Joseph Denison, Isaac Goodnow, and Washington Marlatt funds were raised for the purchase of a farm one mile west of the present State College campus. A three-story building was erected in 1859 and the college, opened under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was given the name of Bluemont College. The Reverend Joseph Denison was chosen president. The college did not prosper and in 1862 it was offered to the State as an agricultural and mechanical college under the provisions of the Merrill Land Grant Act. A resolution of the State legislature, approved by Gov. Thomas Carney, February 3, 1863, created the Kansas State Agricultural College, a coeducational institution. Kansas State has graduated engineers, journalists, and scientists in addition to its trained agronomists.
In 1931 the State legislature changed the name of the college from Kansas State Agricultural College to Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. It took Kansas sports writers quite a while to forget the habit of referring to Kansas State athletic team as "The Aggies" but the new appellation "wildcats" finally superseded the traditional nickname.
In the early fall of 1934 Kansas State became the center of a controversy on compulsory military training. The Morrill Act, under which the college was established, reads as follows:
. . . where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts.
The school year of 1934 opened with a military training strike by three freshmen who refused to drill and gave their abhorrence of war as a justification. College authorities were insistent. Patriotic organizations took up the fight for compulsion. Pacifist groups offered legal and moral support to the striking students. Eventually the question was referred to the State legislature at the session of 1935. Proponents of the forced drill prepared legislation making it compulsory. Backed by the American Legion and the college authorities the bill was passed. Students who object to drill must seek their education at other colleges.
Prof. Fred A. Shannon of the department of history won a Pulitzer award for historical research in 1929. In 1933 the Kansas Magazine was revived by Russell Thackery of the department of industrial journalism (see LITERATURE). Prof. John Helm, Jr., of the department of architecture, is now (1938) director of the Kansas State Federation of Art.
Kansas State had an enrollment of 4,457 in 1938.
In ANDERSON HALL, the college administration building, is a MUSEUM, that contains a collection of antique furniture, a pottery collection, and other articles of interest.
In THE COLLEGE LIBRARY, is an art collection, including portraits, oils, and water colors. Some of the paintings and murals, by WPA artists, were presented to the college by the Federal Art Project of Kansas. On the fourth floor of the library is an arch of stone letters forming the words, Bluemont College, 1859. This arch was set above the entrance to old Bluemont College. It was taken from an old barn a number of years ago and placed in the library.
FAIRCHILD HALL contains a large MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. There are many specimens of mounted animals and reptiles as well as a collection of live snakes, lizards, and alligators. Other exhibits include a large collection of mounted birds, Indian artifacts, and a geological collection.
Kansas State College owns 1,428 acres of land, much of which is used for agricultural experiments. At the extreme southwest corner of the campus is a MEMORIAL STADIUM where the Kansas State athletic teams compete with the other members of the Big Six conference. The stadium was completed in 1922.
SUNSET CEMETERY, Sunset and Evergreen Aves. (R), on the crest of a hill overlooking the city, contains the SOLDIERS MONUMENT, erected in 1898 by the Lew Gove Post, Grand Army of the Republic. It is an oblong shaft surmounted by an old cannon. A singing tower has been erected in a new section of the cemetery.
DENISON CIRCLE, in the center of a winding drive at the intersection of Evergreen and Sunset Aves., a sodded plot of ground 100 feet in diameter has in its center THE REVEREND JOSEPH DENISON MONUMENT, a memorial of red glacial boulders to the first president of Kansas State College.
MEMORIAL ARCH, Evergreen and Poyntz Aves., was erected in memory of Amanda Arnold, one of Manhattan's first school teachers. The arch was taken from the old Central School building.
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