On October 7, 1939 the Horace Mann School and Wells Library were dedicated by Gov. Lloyd Stark in a ceremony on the lawn between the two buildings. Prior to that time, almost all classes, from nursery through college, were held in the Administration Building. The high school was called “College High.” Initially, high school students took some of the same classes as college students, but they only received high school credit!

The colorized photo is from the News-Press. A similar photo is also in the 1940 Tower yearbook.

Caption: Governor Stark Dedicating Buildings at Maryville.
St. Joseph News-Press, October 9, 1939, Page 6. via Newspapers.com https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-joseph-news-press-stark-dedicating-h/198423776/

The new library and Horace Mann training school were dedicated on Saturday at the Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, Maryville. In delivering the dedicatory address, Governor Stark paid high tribute to Horace Mann, who accepted the secretaryship of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, just 100 years ago, on the day the Horace Mann building project was authorized.

History of Horace Mann School (up to 1948)

Horace Mann Had Humble Beginning
The Maryville Daily Forum, October 28, 1947, Page 2. via Newspapers.com https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-maryville-daily-forum-history-of-hor/198425485/

The present Horace Mann School, with its staff of teachers, is a far advancement from the humble beginnings of the school on the STC campus.

The early secondary school,  the “Academy” during the years of the old Normal school, was an integral part of the college. Frequently, high school pupils were enrolled in college classes and received high school rather than college credit for their work.

When separate classes for high school pupils were organized, they were taught by college faculty. High school pupils met in college rooms and laboratories and took part in many college activities, including the annual “walkout day” and assemblies.

The elementary school was conducted in one room in rural schools with fifteen pupils enrolled in the first eight grades. Prospective rural school teachers were provided student teaching in the building and non-rural teachers were assigned to the Maryville Public Schools.

As enrollments increased, the demonstration or practice school in elementary school was changed from rural to urban, and in 1927, the school was departmentalized, with the following grades and supervisors:
*Grades one, two, and three, Ruth Jean Souter, now Mrs. Price,
*Grades four, five, and six. Mary Keith
*Grades seven and eight, Miss Dora B Smith

In 1928, Miss Chive E Millikan became supervisor of the primary department, succeeding Miss Souter, who had resigned. The elementary school was located in the west end of the first floor of the College building

During the latter 1920s, enrollment in the high school had increased to some 120, and more subjects of a strictly high school rank were being offered. The number of student teachers had increased, and most supervision was provided by members of the College departments.

Later still, the high school was on the east floor of the east side of the Administration Building.

During the latter part of the 1930s, a kindergarten was added to the laboratory school, and in 1938, a nursery school was added as well.

The Horace Mann Laboratory School, located between the Administration Building and the gymnasium, was built starting in 1937 at a cost of $250,000 and houses nursery through 12th grade. The building was dedicated to Lloyd C Stark on October 7, 1939. The school was fully occupied in 1940.

Horace Mann principal Herbert Dietrich came to Maryville in 1927.

Missouri Gov. Stark Remarks at Dedication

Good Local Governments Are Asked by Governor Stark as He Dedicates STC Buildings
He Says Voting Is First Duty of Good Citizens
Governor Pays High Tribute to Lamkin as Outstanding Educator.
Education Can Aid in Keeping Down Crime
The Maryville Daily Forum, October 7, 1939, Page 1. via Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-maryville-daily-forum-dedication-of/198423366/
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https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-maryville-daily-forum-dedication-of/198423561/

Gov. Lloyd C. Stark today called for a renewal of the “old spirit of personal responsibility for good government” in dedicating the Horace Mann training school and the new library building at the Teachers College here. In support of his plea, he quoted R Washington, an editorial writer’s opinion must become at least as much a concern for educated men and women as is their golf, their bridge, their cocktail participation.”

First Duty to Vote.

“The first duty of a citizen is to vote. “The man or woman who shirks that duty when the issue of honest and efficient government is at stake xxx is unwittingly on the side of the enemies of democratic government.”

Governor Stark spoke from a stage erected on the campus directly west of the Residence Hall. The stage, facing north, was decorated in patriotic bunting. Two sections of bleachers, accommodating 1,200 persons, were arranged near the speaker’s platform. Several folding chairs were also placed on the ground in front of the bleachers.

Crime a Menace.

Governor Stark paid tribute to Dr. Uel W. Lamkin, president of the College, saying “all of Missouri is proud to have such a distinguished educator as Dr. Lamkin in charge of a major unit of our state educational system.” Stark also reiterated a statement that organized crime is “a greater menace to the nation than communism, anarchism, syndicalism, fascism, and Nazi-ism all rolled into one.”

Speaks at Shenandoah
‘We can do our duty as citizens by voting to fill our public offices with men who will not sell criminals protection. They cannot exist without the protection of corrupt politicians,” he declared.

“Education can do its share toward removing the shadow of this menace from the homes of the great majority of God-fearing, law-abiding citizens of America,’ the Governor added. Earlier, in a radio address over an Iowa state network from Shenandoah. Ia. Stark denounced “the trade barrier menace” and asserted “growth of this un-American practice has been substantially checked.” “The right to preserve American markets for American producers is being waged successfully throughout the nation.

xxx A prosperous farm population is the safest rock on which to build the greater America of the future,” he said. Honor to Speak Here. The text of the Governor’s speech is as follows:

I consider it a very great honor to have been invited here today for the dedication of these new buildings, which add so much to your beautiful campus. But we do not consider these improvements as a mere addition to the College’s physical plant. Rather, we must view them as a $400,000 investment in good citizenship -a small price to pay for the benefits which will accrue to uncounted thousands of school children, whose education will be enhanced because of better facilities for training their teachers. Many honors have come to Northwest Missouri State Teachers College since Dr. Lamkin took over as president eighteen years ago. I want to briefly refer to two such tributes to this institution in the past year.

Progressive School

This College was chosen as one of twenty in the United States to participate in a study of general education by the American Council of General Education. The second honor was conferred by the American Association of University Women. Northwest Missouri State Teachers College was designated as one of five colleges whose graduates can become members of the Association. Such tributes reflect the school’s progressive spirit, even as the construction of new buildings signifies its physical expansion and growth. Tribute to Lamkin, I know the people of Maryville and Northwest Missouri are proud to have at the head of this institution a man who has been honored by the presidency of the National Education.

Dr. Lamkin is a major unit of our state education. I was interested to learn that the new training school has been named in honor of the great pioneer educator, Horace Mann.

Name Is Appropriate

That designation was particularly appropriate because authorization for the new building in 1937 coincided with the one hundredth anniversary of Mr. Mann’s acceptance of the secretaryship of the Massachusetts board of education. When Mr. Mann, then a promising young statesman with a fine opportunity to attain the highest offices in the gift of his fellow citizens, resigned as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts to pursue his educational mission, many of his friends were astounded. They did not hesitate to point out that neither the newly created state board of education nor its secretary had anything but the most limited authority under the law. The whole thing, as a matter of fact, was regarded as a highly dubious experiment by the legislators who created Faith In His Mission. One day, so the story goes, a close friend called on Horace Mann to argue the question with him.

The great educator’s answer clearly shows the unconquerable faith he had in his mission. He said: “If the title is not sufficiently honorable now, then it is clearly left for me to elevate it; and I had rather be creditor than debtor of the title.” That is a creed to which every man in public life could well subscribe. If he is content to let the office honor him, to add nothing | to its prestige by his own conduct in his official duties, he indeed becomes a debtor to the title. It seems to me that a man who would sacrifice his own personal advancement in law and politics to carry on the task of promoting the cause of education would appreciate the kind of memorial you have given him. He would not have cared for a useless monument or a flattering statue of heroic proportions.

But a training school–an educational workshop in which neophyte teachers learn their craft in the realistic atmosphere of the school room–that would have appealed to Horace Mann. Road to Success. His great theme was the relationship between intellectual and moral knowledge and human well-being. He believed firmly that the way to make democracy succeed was to educate people in whose hands the trust had d been placed by the founding fathers–the great American public. Certainly, we cannot discount the importance of the home and the church’s influence in shaping the lives of our future citizens.

Nevertheless, we must concede that the Democratic concept of equal opportunity for all reaches its highest realization in the American public school system.

It follows that the teacher’s place in our Democratic society is important. The instructor who enters upon task adequately trained and sincerely inspired to open the portals of the temple of knowledge for his young charges is one of Democracy’s greatest assets. One function of public education deserves special emphasis. It must bridge the gap between purely academic learning and the practical application of book knowledge to everyday existence. Know Your Home State. I do not think many of our Missouri school children would be badly informed as the Bronx schoolboy who was asked how many states he could name, *All six of them,” he proudly replied. “New York, New England, Long Island, Reno, Hollywood, and the Midwest.” It is important for Missouri boys and girls to know all about their home state, its history, its products, and its resources.

But they also must know about the other states in the Union, about the Union itself, and its place in the family of nations. Above all, they must have instilled in them the kind of patriotism which will make them willing to accept the heavy responsibilities of citizenship -not only a willingness to rush to their country’s defense if war should threaten, but a willingness to interest themselves in the peacetime problems of government and work for their solution. Politics Is Of Concern. Felix Morley, editor of the Washington Post, recently made this pointed comment: ‘Politics must become at least as much a concern for educated men and women as is their golf, their bridge, their cocktail parties. The old spirit of personal responsibility for good local government must be recaptured.” It is this sense of personal responsibility, this conception of duty, which must be inculcated in our youth if they are to become good citizens as adults. The first duty of a citizen is to vote.

The man or woman who shirks that duty when the issue of honest and efficient government is at stake in his community, state, or nation is unwittingly on the side of the enemies of the democratic form of government. Protect Liberties in this period of great world unrest. We must protect our liberties from assaults of every kind. It is a time for clear thinking, as the spreaders of foreign propaganda attempt to shake us from our firm determination to remain at peace in a war-torn world. The censorship that the radio industry voluntarily imposed on inflammatory orators was not an idle gesture.

It is significant that it was the industry itself, and not the government, which curtailed the activities of these firebrands. That is the way we would have it in a democracy. It is a procedure in startling contrast to the methods practiced in the dictator-ridden nations, which these agitators would hold up to us as the ideal state. One thing is certain. Conditions under a dictator are not ideal for the government’s enemies.

There the technique of silencing critics is a far different one–they put them in concentration camps or shoot them. Foreign Isms The danger of these advocates of foreign “Isms” undermining the faith of the American people in their democratic institutions is one not to be taken lightly. Yet here is the considered opinion of a veteran jurist, Judge Curtis Bok of Philadelphia. He said: “Organized crime is a greater menace to this country’s institutions than Communism, Anarchism, Syndicalism. Fascism and Nazi-ism, all rolled into one.” What does that mean to us, as good citizens? We are not law enforcement officers, the great majority of us.

How then does this menace of organized crime concern us, and what can we do about it? We e can do our duty as citizens by voting to fill our public offices with men who will not sell the criminals protection. They cannot exist without the protection of corrupt politicians. Our authority for that broad statement is none other than J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Education Can Help. Education can do its share toward removing the shadow of this menace from the homes of the great majority of God -fearing, law-abiding citizens of America. We train our citizens of tomorrow, the boys and girls now in school, to understand the demands that citizenship places on them and to meet those demands in their daily lives. As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.

To the degree that the teacher implants in the child this conception of individual responsibility, to that degree will his training be reflected in his conduct as an adult citizen. We have come a long way since the days of Horace Mann, when the position of teacher was one of great insecurity and little renown. It was said of Mann that “he gave men higher ideas of the work and character of the teacher. At the same time, he taught the teacher to magnify his office.” As we dedicate the new Horace Mann training school of Northwest, Missouri State Teachers’ College today, we honor the great pioneer of American education, both for his elevation of teaching to the status of an honored profession and for making the American people conscious of the right and justice of such a concept.

Horace Mann “Father of the Common School Movement”

Horace Mann is considered the “Father of the Common School Movement” because he revolutionized 19th-century American education by advocating for free, tax-supported, universal public schools that were open to all children, regardless of background. 

Mann, who served as the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education starting in 1837, laid the foundation for the modern educational framework through several groundbreaking reforms: