College Beginnings

Creating a College Campus

Preparing for a New Century

Cadwallader Washburn

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1927

• The junior college movement gains in strength nationwide and Mother Samuel Coughlin, the prioress of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, consults President Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin, regarding the plans for opening of a junior college for women at Edgewood. The purpose of the two-year college was to provide basic liberal arts preparation which would ensure that young Catholic women would be “well qualified to pursue vocational or liberal arts courses as juniors in standard colleges or universities, or to enter at once upon a domestic or business career.”
   
• On July 27, the first matriculation fee of $10 is received from Elizabeth Ann Grady of Oregon, Wisconsin; tuition is $150, room and board, $600.
   
• High school and junior college students share classroom quarters in the new facility. Elementary students and high school boarders live in the Academy building. Junior college students, with some Sisters, live in “the tower” of the new building. A prized feature of this is the extensive view the Towerites have of the city, coupled with the use of the roof as a sun deck.
   
• The southwest section of campus has woods and farmland with space for gardens which the Sisters, students and hired help maintain. Cows, chickens, horses and cats are familiar sights. While the farm animals eventually disappear, they are replaced over the years by Trixie the dog, Marshmallow the rabbit, a lamb, Fred & Ethel the ducks, and Frobisher the cat.
   
• On September 14, 1927 Edgewood Junior College officially opens with an enrollment of twelve women—nine boarders and three day students; five more day students join them in the second semester.
   
• Sister Grace James is nominal president of the College in its first year, also serving as principal of the High School and prioress of the convent of sisters. She is followed the next year by Sister Laurentina Boyle and in 1934 by Sister Marie Francis Barden.

1928
The first May Crowning ceremony is held, an annual religious commemoration of the Virgin Mary which continues at the College into the 1960s.

1929

• In May, the Sinsinawa Dominican General Council approves the sale of the southeast corner of the Edgewood property to Leo T. Crowley, a long-time friend and benefactor, for $20,000 - the equivalent of one year’s interest on the debt for the new building. On the property, Crowley builds a Tudor-style home overlooking Lake Wingra.
   
• June 11, the first seven graduates of Edgewood Junior College receive their Associate of Arts degree.
   
• The Stock Market crashes on October 29 as 16,410,030 shares are sold off in a frenzy; the financial collapse after a boom period is worsened by panicked depositors who rush banks in an attempt to withdraw their savings.

• Some Halloween, pranksters paint the Sisters' cows yellow and green.  The last cows are sold the following year.
   
• The “Living Rosary” is held on the first Sunday of October and continues as an annual tradition for the next several decades.
   
• Attendance at films increases and the careers of many former silent stars dissipate as studios rush to produce “talkies.” The long hard times of the Depression are just beginning and movies will provide a needed temporary escape for many.

1931
On May 31, a 50th year celebration is held complete with a pageant describing the history of the Edgewood and featuring an angel of death, fire imps, Indians, frogs, and butterflies; Governor LaFollette attends. A week later, the annual Washburn Day banquet was held on June 7, and Dr. Annette Washburn, niece of the governor, was the guest of honor. She was in neuropsychiatric practice at Madison’s Wisconsin General Hospital and was the first woman to be appointed as a full professor in the University Medical School.

1933

• A student magazine, The Conifer, is launched; it features articles, essays, fiction, editorials and poetry.
   
• Moliere’s “The Imaginary Invalid,” a play directed by Sr. Marie Aileen Klein, wins first place in the Wisconsin Dramatic Tournament.

1934
Elizabeth Du Bois joins the faculty as a physical education teacher. Before teaching, she had won international recognition as a speedskater at the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, taking a gold medal in the 1000 meter race and a silver in the 500 meter race. After leaving Edgewood in 1936, she joins the Sinsinawa Dominicans and takes the name Sister Vincent.

1935
April 28, Helen Hayes visits Edgewood while on tour in the title role of Mary of Scotland which plays at the Parkway theater; she returns, several times to visit her teacher and mentor, Edgewood's Dean, Sister Marie Aileen Klein.

1936

• Dr. Annette C. Washburn, a psychiatrist and grandniece of Cadwallader Washburn, is the guest of honor at a graduation.
   
• Oscar Mayer Foods launches a massive advertising campaign featuring a gigantic hot dog on wheels: the Weinermobile and Little Oscar travel the country dispensing whistles to the delight of children.

1937
A gymnasium and cafeteria are added to the High School building.

1938
The auditorium of the High School building is remodeled.

1939
An archaeological dig of the Native American mounds on the property is undertaken by WPA workers under the direction of Dr. Charles Brown of the State Historical Society. He tells the sisters that some skeletons found in the small conical mounds “were probably 800 to 1,000 years old.”

1940

• The senior college begins, as Sisters are admitted to a four-year program leading to a bachelor’s degree in education as negotiations are underway with the University of Wisconsin for recognition of Edgewood’s programs.
   
• Sister Rose Catherine Leonard becomes the fourth “president” of the College; like her three predecessors, she was primarily prioress of the convent and principal of the High School, as as Sister Mary Hope O'Brien who succeeded her.
   
• Sister Dunstan Tucker succeeds Sister Marie Aileen as Dean of the College; she serves in this role until 1950.

1941

• A new laundry and powerhouse (now the nursery school) are built behind the high school.
   
• The first edition of the new college newspaper, the Tower Torch, is published. Its successors include The Screed and On the Edge.
   
• Japan bombs Pearl Harbor on December 7; the United States declares war on Japan while Germany declares war on the United States, drawing America into both theaters of World War II.

1942

• At the June commencement ceremony, eighteen graduates receive Bachelor of Science degrees in Education.
   
• Final approval for the College as a four-year institution is received in December.
   
• Helen Hayes visits her old friend, drama teacher and dean of the College from 1927 to 1940, Sr. Marie Aileen Klein in February. Of Sister Marie Aileen, Hayes once remarked, “There is always one teacher you meet in your lifetime who inspires you. That is Sister Marie Aileen in my case. She poured theater into me... It was a joy to be in her classroom.”

1944

• Olivette Kennedy from Mendota, Wisconsin, is the first lay student to graduate with a bachelor of science degree.
   
• The yearbook changes its name to The Torch.
   
• In January, composer Igor Stravinsky visits campus with pianist Nadia Boulanger, a teacher of Sister Edward Blackwell (both pictured at right), head of Edgewood’s music department from 1939 to 1949. Stravinsky gives a lecture/concert — his only Madison performance. Boulanger returns in July to give a summer workshop and performance, “An Hour of Music.”

1945

• The first Marshall Hall Council is formed. One problem they face during the year is the flooding of the building when the plumbing backs up. They rally their fellow students to bail out the mess. But, one young woman writes, just as the pots, kettles and wastebaskets were put away, “Well, as the faucet said to the sink, ‘There I go again!’ and the bucket brigade rolled up their sleeves and remembered the Johnstown flood!”
   
• Dr. Spock publishes The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care that was to make him a household name among young parents.

1946
Enrollment hits 100. By 1950, it is at 140 and overcrowding is a problem!

1948

• Mother Samuel announces her intent to see a separate building eventually built for the women’s college in order to allow expansion of the grade school and high school.
   
• The Edgewood College Chorus performs on WKOW radio for the Madison Diocesan Catholic Hour, heard at 10:30am on Sundays.
   
• The Student Government Association is formed.
   
• The Theotimon Honor Society is formed, accepting as members college women who will “Honor God through Knowledge” and who will display Christian character, leadership, and service.