Lowell State College
Located in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the country's early sites of industrial manufacturing, the city was the home of diverse and rapid immigration as new waves of new people sought jobs in the mills.
[2]: 29 Spanning the period from 1894 to 1960, Lowell State College (and its earlier iterations) were one of the major institutions in this regional city in northeastern Massachusetts.
Located in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the new manufacturing towns springing up in America that had been carved out of several, earlier Colonial villages (Dracut, Chelmsford, Tyngsboro, Tewksbury), which were themselves sitting on land once the province of the indigenous peoples of the area.
As a new and growing town, Lowell had established a reputation for educational innovation with the creation of the "first co-educational and racially integrated High School in the country (1831).
Normal schools already existed in Westfield, Bridgewater, Worcester, and Framingham, Massachusetts when the legislature began to consider the need for the development of more.
"[5]: 16 The original classroom building opened the next year at the corner of Broadway and Wilder streets and quickly became a landmark in the city.
Designed by local firm Stickney & Austin, it reflects the fashion of the time: high-style Beaux Arts with classical symmetry, arches, cast-iron lampposts and yellow brick.
Principals of the Normal School included: Frank Coburn (1897–1907);[2]: 11 Cyrus A. Durgin (1908–1916);[2]: 15 John Mahoney (1916–1922);[2]: 20 and Clarence Weed (1922–1935).
The years prior to this transition were challenging for the Normal School as enrollments steadily declined and the job situation for teachers worsened.
A delegation of prominent individuals representing Lowell's powerful interest groups traveled to Boston and convinced state officials of the school's importance.
She taught at the Normal School for 15 years before she joined the Women's Army Corps in 1942, where she rose steadily through the service to eventually become director before she retired in 1960[5]: 55 As the demand for more qualified teachers grew, the legislature reorganized the Normal School into Lowell State College in 1960 with a curriculum that expanded beyond education to include baccalaureate degrees in other fields including nursing and music.
The physical plant of the campus expanded during post-war era from a single structure to a multi-building complex, forming an area now known as UMass Lowell's South Campus.The dedication of several buildings named for each of the school's six presidents was held on June 9, 1974.
[2]: 58 [5]: 101 Marguerite Gourville was originally hired as director of physical education in 1936, and quickly distinguished herself as founder of the Modern Dance Club.
