 Sherman Daily Democrat Auditorium Site Was Campus for Girls Schools Since 1870 Kidd-Key Was Famous for Many Years Conservatory Was Out-growth of Academy and Two Female Colleges Grounds Donated After Civil War for Campus Competition from State Supported Schools Contributed to End by Fern Jefferson Brick and stones falling last winter from wreckage of the once imposing Kidd-Key conservatory buildings with their tall columns ___ not the sound of rocks on an empty sepulcher, but rather as bells clinging "in memoriam" to the woman who fostered the school from the time she traveled by stage coach over muddy roads of Texas and braved the hardships of early civilization, only to have the school give way a few years after her death to the competition of tax supported schools. The roots of education in Sherman lie buried deep on the four-acre tract now the site of the new community center, and are linked with a golden chain of culture. It was Mrs. Lucy A. Kidd who, in 1888, picked up the fragments of Sherman's first college, the Sherman Male and Female academy, founded in 1870, and who in 1905 reclaimed Sherman's second college, the Mary Nash college which began in 1877 as the Sherman Female institute; and who, through a steady program of development, dotted with culture hundreds of towns and cities of the United States by training of young women in the arts and sciences under direction of both old world and American masters. CAMPUS WAS GIFT And to this four-acre tract conveyed Sept. 8, 1870, as a gift to a group of trustees by J. C. D. Blackburn and his wife, Josephine, may be traced also the foundation of the public school system of Sherman. From these sacred roots also sprang Captain J. C. Le Tellier's private school for young men, for it was in the old academy as assistant to J. C. Parks, mathematics prodigy, that Captain Le Tellier received much of his major education, particularly in "intellectual mathematics." for which he was noted. The school, closed in 1912, gave many business and professional men of today their training. The Le Tellier home, which was moved a little south and east of its original location, is now the residence of W. S. Buster, 722 South Walnut. One of two other frame buildings of the old Le Tellier school stands today at the northeast corner of Odneal and Montgomery. The third was torn down on the original school location, where the home of H. Levis Hall, 723 South Travis, is now located. The Sherman Male and Female academy was a two-story frame building, located about where the Kidd-Key main building was later erected, just south and a little west of the new municipal building. The old frame was sold in 1890 to make room for the Lois Thompson or Main hall of the North Texas Female college under the regime of Mrs. Kidd. CHURCH PROPERTY On April 13, 1873, trustees of the old academy conveyed the property to the Trinity conference of the Southern Methodist church and the name was changed to the North Texas Female college, the property reported as valued at $40,000 at the time. Young men then withdrew from the school to attend the Le Tellier school for boys which opened that year. It was in 1878 that the first class of the female college was graduated. Of that class of nine young women, three are yet living in this area, including Miss Thenis Freeman, who for 32 years taught in the Sherman public schools and was principal of the old Franklin building at Mulberry and Walnut, Mrs. Vernon Brown (Ella Tuck), a daughter of the late Captain Hairman N. Tuck who served as one of the first board members of the old college and Mrs. Emma (Goode) Goode of Sanger. It was during the academy days that public school classes were conducted. In 1873, the first public school was actually established, located in the first Odd Fellows building just north of the present Texas and Pacific freight depot on North Walnut. By 1878 three separate public schools were operating. BRICK CHAPEL In 1880 the first unit of the old two-story and basement brick chapel, known later as the Julia Halsell hall, was erected. This was wrecked in February, 1927, when the Kidd-Key conservatory started the erection of what is now the community center building. The old college pipe organ on which many girls practiced and played programs in the southwest corner of the upper auditorium of Halsell hall, is now in the Key Memorial Methodist church. In the summer of 1888, when Mrs. Kidd came from Mississippi to take the presidency of the college, it had been closed for two years. Only the original academy building, an uncompleted frame just south of it and the first unit of the chapel, composed the buildings. A valuation of $15,000 had been placed on the property, which was encumbered with debts, totaling $11,000. After a personal canvas over the state, riding in stage coaches much of the time, Mrs. Kidd reopened the college with 60 boarders and a total enrollment of almost 100. From the meager campus group of 1888 there spread under her direction seven brick buildings and several cottage units and a gymnasium. And from that first enrollment of 100 students, the school grew to have more than 500 young women. In 1897 Binkley hall, a three-story brick building named for the Rev. J. M. Binkley was erected. . . . in 1891, a three-story frame dormitory. When this was burned in 1905 it was succeeded by Annie Green hall in 1906, a brick building of two stories and basement. The next building erected was Paradise cottage, a two-story frame at Elm and Pecan, northwest corner. On Jan. 1, 1892 Mrs. Kidd was married to the late Bishop Joseph S. Key. In 1893 Mrs. Kidd-Key erected a two-story and basement addition to the rear of the brick chapel. Frame buildings near the campus were also bought for use as dormitories. In 1905 Mrs. Kidd-Key bought the Mary Nash college property across the street and facing on Mulberry and Elm. This college for young women functioned from 1877, when it started as the Sherman Female institute, until 1901. It was renamed the Mary Nash college for its founder, Dr. Jesse G. Nash and his wife, Mary Louise Nash, who also came from Mississippi where they operated a similar school. MARY NASH BUILDINGS Four buildings were included in the purchase, as follows: Alamo, brick study hall, razed in October, 1936. Frame gymnasium near the northeast corner of elm and Washington, one of the original Mary Nash buildings, converted into a physical education center for Kidd-Key after a hardwood floor was placed in it. Conservatory, original main building rebuilt by Mrs. Kidd-Key in 1910 as a three-story brick structure with colonial columns. Razed by the city in February 1938. Senior hall, located between the gymnasium and conservatory, originally a Mary Nash dining hall. Razed in February, 1938. The Leona Kimbley hall, a two-story brick just north of Binkley hall, was erected in 1911 after fire destroyed a frame building on the site, known as Colonial hall. This was razed in March, 1938. MANY BIG NAMES From 1896, when Mrs Kidd determined to build a major music conservatory, until the close of the college 39 years later, Kidd-Key college produced hundreds of artistic musicians who received training under foreign trained and American masters. The list of famous teachers include Harold von Mickwitz, Finnish pianist, who died in his native land in February, 1938; Jacob Schreiner, violinist from the Cincinnati conservatory; Alfred Cowell Goodwin, who studied both in Vienna and England; Paul Cessna Gerhart, mandolin artist from Pennsylvania; Hans Rischard, Swiss pedagogy for 15 years head of the conservatory who returned in 1928 to the Cincinnati conservatory; Frank Renard, German pianist and composer, now of Dallas; Carl Venth, German violinist who died at San Antonio in January, 1938; Pettis Pipes, American pianist who died several years ago; Bomar Cramer, Pipes student and now at Indianapolis; Philip Tronitz, German pianist; Feodor Gontzoff, Russian singer and teacher of voice who taught in the closing years and who is now in Dallas; David A. Davidson, American pianist now in Cincinnati, and others. Miss Ethel Rader of Denison, soprano who married W. L. Evans in February, 1937, was Kidd-Key trained and taught in the college. She is now a member of the Southern Methodist university voice faculty. George E. Case, veteran Sherman musician and teacher, was identified with Mary Nash and later Kidd-Key and now with Austin college here. Julien Paul Blitz, Belgian 'cellist', is now head of the Texas Technological college school of music, teaching in the college in the closing days from 1931 to 1935. The late Dr. E. L. Spurlock, an ordained minister of the Methodist church, originally came to the college in 1903 as traveling representative, remaining in this work until 1913. He was president from 1923 until 1928. SON AIDED COLLEGE Closely associated with the college was Mrs. Kidd's second son, Edwin, who came with his mother to Sherman in 1888, and who saw the college both expand and decay. He was only 18 years old when he became secretary and business manager under his mother. Always . . . college management, he at the same time was interest n the management of his 700-acre farm, north of Sherman, where he took his family to reside. When his mother died in 1916, he assumed the presidency until 1923, beginning of Dr. Spurlock's term, and succeeded him when he retired, serving until the close in 1935. In 1916 Kidd-Key college ceased to confer degrees and was transformed into a two-year junior college. In 1918, the institution received recognition from the Association of Texas Colleges and the state department of education as a junior college of the first class. This enabled students to receive first class state teachers certificates and full credit for their work in the leading higher educational institutions. With the decline of Mrs. Kidd-Key's health, Dr. J. O. Leath came to the college in 1915 as dean, with Miss Maggie W. Barry, now of the state agricultural college, as associate dean. Going with Texas Woman's college in 1924, he returned in January, 1929, and served here until May 15, 1934. STATE COMPETITION Education authorities agree that it was not alone the death of Mrs. Kidd-Key that was responsible for the decay of the college, but the modern trend to state supported institutions. Still hopeful of regaining her ground, the Kidd-Key board in 1927 conceived the idea of erecting a new administration building and college auditorium, and on Oct. 15, 1927, the college secured through bonds made to a St. Louis company $125,000 for that purpose. Contract for the three-story rear unit was awarded at a cost of $68,768.34 and this unit with 27 classrooms and studios was completed July 5, 1928 at a cost of $29,222.88 and was terminated April 20, 1929, some of the brick, stone and concrete work having been done.  In another effort to reclaim lost support, Mr. Kidd tried out a new departure with Austin college, also located here. Duplication in courses, excepting in religious education, was eliminated and overhead thus saved. The colleges maintained their separate identity and gave degrees as before, Kidd-Key limited to bachelor of music. Large buses carried students between the two colleges. This experiment, however, was of short duration. CHURCH ENDS SUPPORT In September, 1933, the five Methodist conferences of Texas received recommendations that Kidd-Key and three other colleges be abandoned to the towns in which they were located. It was then that the final struggle of Kidd-Key to survive began in earnest and with no outside help the college closed its doors two years later. The college property reverted to the bondholders and the dormitories became rooming and apartment houses, housing hundreds of people until the city purchased the properties in May, 1937, for $40,000. Now the site of the earlier colleges becomes a municipal center glorifying the traditions of the once illustrious schools.  Kidd Key College History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |