Souvenir Program Shines Spotlight on Schools in Louisville in 1895
By I.N. Bloom, A.B, M.D.
When an approximate census of the city was taken, based on the number of children attending the public schools, it was found that a lower coefficient must be used than in most of the cities of the country. The public of Louisville appreciates the excellence of its common school system and sends its children to them in very large numbers, as the following figures, based on the fiscal year ending December 31, 1894, will show:
The average daily attendance was 20,223 throughout the year, and the total expense in educating was in round numbers $499-460. The city maintains 44 public schools. Included in this number are the district schools for white and colored children, two boys’ high schools, a female high school, a girls’ high school, colored high school for both sexes, a normal class for training teachers, and a business and a commercial class. In the two latter are taught, without expense to the student, bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, etc. In addition, the free night-schools had an average attendance of 1,248. The number of pupils attending the colored schools of this city is very gratifying. There were enrolled in the district schools last year 4,820 and in the colored high school the average daily attendance was 147.
The system of education as practiced in Louisville has been highly complimented by those who have made the subject a study. The advanced methods are in use in the district schools, and less reliance is placed on the text-book than was formerly the case. Object lessons and the higher development of the kindergarten methods are practiced, and the individuality of the pupil, as far as the numbers will permit, is brought out by the teacher.
The high schools, with the exception of the Manual Training High School, which will be mentioned later, are designed to give such a course as will, on graduation, admit the boys and girls to the freshman classes of the leading colleges and universities. The girls’ high school alone had an average attendance of 499, the boys’ high school 256, while the Manual Training, the newest and brightest gem of the public school system, enrolled nearly 200 pupils. A short history of this last-named institution may not be out of place here, as it illustrates the munificence of one of its citizens lately deceased.
On May 2, 1892, Mr. A.V. duPont made a proposition to the Louisville School Board to build a building, suitable and sufficient to accommodate 300 pupils, and to equip it with furniture, tools and machinery, necessary for a manual training school of the first order. In October of that year the first school was opened with 122 enrolled students; on May 1, 1893, it was formally dedicated, the formal address being delivered by Calvin M. Woodward, of St. Louis. Mr. duPont then turned over a deed for the entire property, which had cost more than $150,000, to the president of the school board. The course of instruction at this school covers three years; it includes all subject of the boys’ high school except Latin and Greek, but in place of these it carries out a system of manual training throughout the course. The school hours are longer by one and a half hours per day, and each boy has two hours’ shop work each day. He is drilled in free hand, mechanical and architectural drawings. In the shop he is drilled in tool instruction including joinery, wood turning, wood carving, pattern making, molding and casting, forging, tool making and tempering, vise work and machine tool work in metals and mechanical instruction. The generous donor of the school left little to be desired in its equipment and that little was supplied after his death by the voluntary gift of his sister.
The conduct of this school from its little beginning of a class of 24 in 1890, as an annex to the boys’ high school, up to the present time has been in the hands of Professor E.F. Kleinschmidt, to whom is due the present high efficiency of the school. His pupils find no difficulty in entering the technical schools with advanced standing. Professor Woodward, in his address before alluded to, said it was the best equipped manual training high school in the country.
Private Schools
Louisville has 62 private educational institutions, nine professional schools and three theological seminaries.
The Louisville Female Seminary, for young ladies and children, founded in 1851 by the Late Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Nold. The present principal, Miss Annie F. Nold, has had charge of the school for the past 15 years. The original plan of work has been continued as far as possible, and the reputation of the school maintained. The school is divided into primary, intermediate and seminary departments. The course of study is comprehensive. The faculty is composed of specialists. The number of boarding pupils is limited. The school is situated in the most desirable residence part of the city near Central Park.
The Kentucky Home School, for girls, presided over by Miss Belle Peers, is one of the oldest and most successful private schools in the city. Founded nearly 30 years ago, it has a charter from the legislature of Kentucky and the board of directors is at present composed as follows:
Colonel Chas. F. Johnson, Judge H.W. Bruce, Mr. Richard A. Robinson, Mr. Thos. L. Barret, Mr. John D. Taggart, Mr. Stephen E. Jones, Mr. Chas. F. Pettet and Mr. Henry W. Gray. While the school is principally for girls, the primary department is also open to boys. A corps of twelve teachers gives instruction in English, Latin, modern and ancient history, mathematics, the sciences and the modern languages. Music lessons are arranged for if desired. Elocution is optional but calisthenics is a prescribed part of the course, the Swedish method being employed at present. The number of students varies from 100 to 125. The school has changed its location several times, but since 1879 has occupied its present site on Third Street, between Chestnut and Broadway.
Mr. Flexner’s School is a limited private school, admitting pupils from 10 to 18 years of age. The method of instruction employed is that of individual tutoring; no classes are formed, and no two pupils pursue the same courses of study or proceed at the same rate. The endeavor is made to accommodate training strictly to the needs of each individual. The school has been in operation for three years. It was begun as an experiment, but the results already obtained justify the belief that it has pass the experimental state.
The Louisville Training School, for boys, 112 W. Breckinridge Street, was organized in 1889, and has had a large patronage from its beginning. Full preparatory work is done in all branches necessary for university preparation. Especial stress is laid upon the elementary training in English and mathematics.
Hampton College, for girls, was founded in 1878, incorporated in 1881. It has three courses—the Collegiate, Graduate and College Preparatory. It is presided over by Mrs. L. D. Hampton Cowling, and has a large and efficient faculty.
In addition to the above mentioned the city has a number of other schools of equal reputation and character.
The Catholic Schools of Louisville form an important part of its educational system. They are extensive and thorough in their teaching and keep fully abreast of the times. They are principally in charge of the Sisters, who receive a lengthy and careful training for this purpose. Brothers have control of some of the higher institutions, notably St. Xavier’s College. The attendance at these schools is very large—reaching in the aggregate the surprising number of 6,237 pupils. Presentation Academy and St. Xavier’s College are among the finest, best equipped and most commodious institutions of learning in the South.
The following is a complete directory of the Catholic schools of this city: Presentation Academy, Fourth Avenue and Breckinridge Street; Academy of the Sacred Heart, Crescent Hill; Cedar Grove Academy of Loretto, Thirty-Fifth Street and Rudd Avenue; St. Catherine’s Academy of the Sisters of Mercy, 535 Second Street; Mount St. Agnes, Preston Park, Jefferson County; St. Xavier’s College of the Xaverian Brothers, 112 West Broadway.
Parochial Schools: St. Anthony’s, for boys and girls; St. Augustine’s for colored children; St. Boniface’s for boys; St. Boniface’s for girls; St. Bridget’s for boys and girls; St. Cecilia’s for boys and girls; St. Charles’ for boys and girls; St. Claude’s for colored people; St. Columba’s for boys and girls; St. Frances of Rome; St. Francis Assisi’s for boys and girls; Holy Name School, Fourth Avenue and O Street; Holy Trinity, St. Matthews, Jefferson County; Immaculate Conception, Eighth Street, for boys; Immaculate Conception for girls; St. Charles’; St. John’s for boys; St. John’s for girls; St. Joseph’s for boys; St. Joseph’s for girls; St. Louis Bertrand’s; St. Martin’s for boys; St. Martin’s for girls and small boys; St. Mary’s; St. Michael’s for boys and girls; Our Lady’s for boys and girls; St. Paul’s School; St. Patrick’s for boys; St. Patrick’s for girls; St. Peter’s for boys and girls; Sacred Heart for boys and girls; St. Vincent de Paul’s for boys and girls.
Medical Schools
It may not be generally known that Louisville is the second largest center of medical instruction in the United States and that more than 1,000 young men study medicine in our six medical schools. The oldest of these, and indeed, with the exception of a school in New Orleans, the oldest in the South, is the Medical Department of the University of Louisville, founded in 1837, and prominent in the work of medical education ever since. Its faculty is composed of a corps of carefully selected teachers, who are widely and favorably known. The course at present requires three years’ attendance. After this year all students must study four years before receiving a degree. This wise course has been adopted by nearly all the other schools in the city, and has done and will do much for the advancement of medical education in the South and Southwest.
The Kentucky School of Medicine comes next in point of age and enjoys a reputation second to no other. Since its foundation it has enjoyed uninterrupted success. Its faculty is large, able and efficient. It occupies a large and commodious building and grounds. Upon the latter there has been erected quite recently a hospital, affording the students an opportunity for observing the after treatment of important operations and the bedside treatment of the sick.
The Hospital College of Medicine is the medical department of Central University of Kentucky. It is situated near the City Hospital. It has the 3-year graded course and is complete in its equipment and thorough in its course of study.
The Louisville Medical College has undoubtedly the finest college building, from an architectural point of view, in Louisville. It was finished two years ago, and is of stone, and is an ornament to the city. The college was founded 27 years ago and is a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The course is a very complete one and its success has been quite marked in recent years. The number of its matriculates is probably as large as any medical school in the city. Its faculty is composed of men of known abilities.
The National Medical College was established for the purpose of educating colored men for the medical profession. Its course is a year shorter than that of the other medical institutions of the city but in time it will doubtless be lengthened. The college is located on Green Street, between First and Second.
The Southern Homoeopathic Medical College is the latest established in this city, and this year presents its third annual announcement to the public. The course of study is a graded one of four years. The faculty is composed of 18 professors, which includes one woman and one demonstrator of anatomy.
From National Guard eMuseum:
One of the most significant events in the history of Louisville was its hosting of the 29th Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Sept. 11-13, 1895. The city’s leaders planned two years for this event which was unrivaled at the time, making national political party conventions a distant second.
The theme of the encampment was to be reconciliation between the old warriors, since this was the first held below the Mason-Dixon Line. It was attended by dignitaries and Civil War leaders from both sides who came to be honored and to speak.
An estimated 150,000 veterans attended the convention. The high point of the encampment was the parade, with some 30,000 old veterans participating. The parade length and a temperature of 94 degrees held the number of marchers down, as many old veterans struggled to complete the journey. The Kentucky GAR had the honored position of marching last.
Throughout the encampment many other events took place. It was a constant cycle of campfires, reunions, speeches and concerts, many held simultaneously. Excursions went to points of interest such as to cemeteries; Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville and West Point, Ky., for the units that helped build and served at Fort Duffield.