Title:
The Silent Worker Vol. 28 No. 10
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VACATION NUMBER
Vol. XXVIII. No. 10
“The foundation of every State is the education of its youth” -Dionysius.
Trenton, N. J., July, 1916
PUBLIC OPINION
By JAMES H. CLOUD
CONSPICUOUS factors of the Deaf of Minnesota are the Deaf themselves. Their contributions towards the general progress of their class are numerous and practical and may be traced on the statute books of the state, in the methods of instruction used in their schools, in the columns of the public press, in their efficient business, social and industrial activities, and in the effectiveness of the organizations which they maintain for their own advancement.
The latest benefaction in Minnesota is of a highly utilitarian character, probably the first and only one of its kind in the world, and of princely proportions. It is now rising from its foundations, and assuming the from of a noble and artistic structure, on a choice location near the present dividing line between the “twin cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The following description with illustrations provided by the architect, tells the story:
Charles Thompson Hall
Charles Thompson Hall is now in course of construction in Merriam Park, St. Paul, Minn. It is a memorial building in honor of the late Charles Thompson, a graduate of the Minnesota School for the Deaf. It is being built by his widow, Mrs. Margaret Thompson, who was a pupil of the Minnesota School, and graduated from the Colorado School.
Mr. Thompson was genial and popular with the deaf, and the building is designed as a Club House and Social Center for the deaf of Minnesota in general, and St. Paul and Minneapolis in particular. The site is about midway between St. Paul and Minneapolis, and’ the principal car line between the two cities turns at the corner and passes both in front and on the side of the
building. While in school at Faribault Mr. Thompson w r as a schoolmate of Mr. Olof Hanson, the deaf architect of Seattle, Wash., and Mrs. Thompson selected Mr. Hanson to prepare the plans for the building. The following description is taken from the plans of the architect:
The building will be of brick with stone and terra cotta trimmings. The brick will be artistic tapestry brick of variegated brown color, and the trimmings will be light cream color.
Going up a flight of stone steps across a spacious porch with a tile floor we notice the name “Charles Thompson Hall” in terra cotta over the front entrance. Opening the oak doors we pass through a vestibule with the word “Welcome” worked in mosaic in the tile floor, and enter the Loby or Reception Hall. On the right is a handsome iron stairway leading to second floor, and another stairway leads down to the basement. On the left is the Ladies’ Parlor, finished in white. Right ahead is the Social Hall, twenty-five by thirty-eight feet This room is intended as the general meeting place for the deaf at all times, and for small gatherings and week end socials. A large fire-place adds to the cheerfulness of this room, and it is intended to have a decorative frieze painted around this room, embellished with names prominent in the education or welfare of the deaf, such as De l’Epee, Gallaudet, J. L. Noyes, D. H. Carroll, George Wing, Alice Cogswell, Gallaudet’s first pupil; and Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, the first deaf American bride. This room is also provided with a bulletin board for giving notices, and separate cloak rooms are provided for ladies and gentlemen. This room will also be used for a Dining Hall and will seat one hundred people at tables. It is intended to have combination tables and seats so constructed that when not used as a table the top is folded perpendicular, and set against the wall, thus forming seats all around the room. Surplus tables and chairs will be stored away in a storage room under the stage provided for that purpose. In the rear of the Dining Hall is a Serving Pantry or small kitchen with gas stove, sink, tables and cup-boards for dishes. On the first floor also are the living rooms of care-taker of the building. These consist of a Living Room, Bath Room, Bed Room, and Kitchenette, and entirely separate from the rest of the building except through the rear hall.
The Second Floor is mainly taken up by an Assembly Hall with a seating capacity of two hundred. There is a platform for lectures, and a stage with dressing rooms so that small plays may be given. Curtains are provided and arrangements made so that moving pictures and stereopticon views can be thrown on the screen. The floor of the Assembly Hall is maple, so it can be used for dancing, and a check-room is provided in the lobby. At the rear of the Assembly Hall is a Children’s Room. This is intended for mothers with small children, so that the children can amuse themselves without disturbing the audience, while the mothers can watch the lecture or play through the windows provided for that purpose. The Assembly Hall is seventeen feet high and this gives space for a third floor in the front part of the building which is utilized for the Moving Picture Operating Room, a Spare Room, and a large room which may be used for sewing bees, a printing office, or other purpose that may be found desirable.
In the Basement there will be a Billiard Room, a Reading Room, a Bowling Alley, a Boiler Room. Committee Room, and Toilet Rooms with shower baths for ladies and gentlemen. The basement floor is only three feet below the general ground level, which permits of large windows, so that the basement will be well lighted.
Two flights of wide stairways are provided, one at front and one at rear. The front stairs
will be iron with oak treads. The rear stairs will be refined concrete, and fireproof throughout. The construction of the building is durable and Substantial. All bearing walls are brick or concrete. Oak finish and maple floors will be used in the principal rooms. While due attention has been given to artistic effect, the main consideration has been to make the building convenient, substantial and durable. The partitions for shower baths, toilets, and dressing rooms will be marble. Heating will be by steam, and an abundant supply of hot and cold water provided. Electric vacuum cleaning is also provided for.
Special attention has been given to lighting the Assembly Hall and lecture platform. In the daytime large windows on both sides give ample light, without any windows in front or rear to annoy either speaker or audience. For night use. beside the ceiling lights, electric lights are placed in the platform floor on both sides (but not in the middle) and covered with glass, so that a soft light will be thrown upward on the speaker just where needed, without glaring in the eyes of either speaker or audience. The stage will also be illuminated by swinging lights placed on both sides in reflectors. This is the modern way of stage lighting, and preferable to the old way of overhead border lights, especially for the deaf to whom sight is everything. Arrangement will also be made so the lights in the Assembly Hall can be controlled by the speaker, and used for calling the meeting to order.
The active charge of building operations is in the hands of Mr. D. D. Smith, who as agent for Mrs. Thompson has charge of her financial affairs. The management of the building will probably be placed in the hands of trustees for the benefit of the deaf, when it is completed, which is expected to be early next fall.
The grounds are 117 by 173 feet, so that beside the building there will be room for two tennis courts, or other sports. Mrs. Thompson provides not only the grounds and the building, but will also furnish it and provide for its maintenance. The deaf of Minnesota will have probably the finest quarters of the kind in the country.
MRS. MARGARET THOMPSON
Mrs. Margaret Thompson, the generous donor of the hall in memory of her late husband, is a beautiful lady, with a wide acquaintance and deservedly popular. She is a native of Stonehouse, Scotland. She attended the Minnesota School at Faribault for several years going from there to the Colorado School at Colorado Springs, where she finished her education. She and Mr. Thompson were married September 29. 1896.
CHARLES THOMPSON
Mr. Charles Thompson, in whose memory the hall is being erected, was a native of St. Paul and received his education at the Minnesota School at Faribault. His father was a prominent capitalist and the founder of the First National Bank of St. Paul, now owned by the J. J. Hill interests. Mr. Thompson’s share of his father’s estate made him quite wealthy. He had a fine home at St. Paul, at Thomasville, Ga., and at Alexandria, Minn. He was of a genial disposition, very generous and popular. He was a great sportsman and won a national reputation, and a number of cups, as a marksman. He died suddenly on a train on his way home from California. April 22. 1915, at the age of 51.
Mr. Fred Deland, the youthful editor of the Volta Review, opens a two page article in the March issue of that magazine with the following statement:
“An honored teacher of the deaf challenges Mr. Wright’s statement on page 369 of the September Volta Review, that “Mr. Gallaudet went to England for the purpose of learning how to teach deaf children by the pure oral method,” but offers no proof to support his contention. Assuming that the Braidwood method was an oral method, the writer believes Mr. Gallaudet was sent abroad to learn how to teach deaf children by that method.”
The rest of Mr. Deland’s article, for the most part, details Dr. Gallaudet’s visit to the Braid – wood schools and how that mercenary oralist, — a species by no means extinct in the year of our Lord 1916, — frustrated his efforts to observe the methods of instruction in use there, Dr. Gallaudet’s visit to the Paris institution, return to America and the founding of the parent school at Hartford. Mr. Deland offers nothing to warrant the belief which he entertains that Dr. Gallaudet was sent abroad to learn the oral method. We challenged Mr. Wright’s statement to that effect in the October issue of the Worker in the following words:
“Dr. Gallaudet went to England and later to France with an open mind. His object was to gather information as to how the deaf could be taught. He did not go to England because the speech method was used there but because a school for the deaf was located there.”
No one knows as well as Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet, now in his 80th year, the object of his father’s visit abroad in 1815. In a letter which he wrote me a short time ago Dr. Gallaudet says:
“You are quite right in your idea that my father went to Europe with “an open mind” as to methods.”
Teachers having to do with the language work in advanced grades will be especially interested in the “Outlines” prepared by Mr, James W. Sowell, of the Nebraska School faculty. The “Outlines” cover, from year to year, the required readings for college admission and are the most thorough and comprehensive of any thing of the same general character which has yet come under our observation. The “Outlines” are well calculated to attract and to hold the interest of the student of the English classics and to lead him a profitable quest through the highways and byways of both poetry and prose. Mr. Sowell, himself a gifted poet and a master of classical expression, is exceptionally well qualified to point out to the youthful student the beauties in literature much of which are more or less obscure even to older minds. By means of clever analysis, comparison and illustration, he proceeds to infuse into the student not only a clearer meaning of the context but also something of the emotion-sense, the spirit, of the author.
The “Outlines” are neatly typewritten, artistically illustrated and attractively bound and impress one as being the last word in their particular field.
LUELLA FRENCH NYHUS
Mrs. Luella French Nyhus has been appointed to the position of Superintendent of the Division for the Deaf in the Department of Labor and Industries of Minnesota with headquarters in the Capitol at St. Paul. The position recently became vacant by the resignation of Miss Petra Fandrem to become the bride of Mr. J. C. Howard, president of the N. A. D.
Mrs. Nyhus is peculiarly well fitted for the position both by training and experience. She is a daughter of deaf-mute parents. Her father, George C. French, was educated at the Wisconsin School, at Delavan, and her mother, Caroline Brown French, attended the State School at Indianapolis. Ind. Mrs. Nyhus’s association with the deaf has been life-long. She is in close sympathy with them, understands their needs and is proficient in the sign-language. She has a High and Normal School training, has taught school and has held several business positions. She was assistant secretary and stenographer to Hon. H. P. Keller during his second term as Mayor of St. Paul. With her natural ability, business training and the enthusiasm she is bringing to the work it is confidently believed that the duties of the office created by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota, and first proposed by Mr. Anson R. Spear, will be well and faithfully performed.
A house committee consisting of J. Langford, chairman; Anton Schroeder. Secretary; Mrs. L. W. Hodgman, Treasurer; W. L. Williams, and T. Garbarino will have general charge of the Thompson Memorial Hall. The Hall is located at the corner of Marshall and Fairview Aves., St. Paul, the finest location in the city. It is expected that the Hall will be finished about August 1st. The cost is estimated at $40,000 not including the furnishings. A Board of Trustees will be created soon. Mr. D. D. Smith is acting as agent for Mrs. Thompson.
To the Silent Worker family a restful, helpful, happy summer vacation.
JAMES. H. CLOUD.
St. Louis, Mo.
Taken:
1916-06
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