SDSU Celebrates 125 Years Beginning in University Heights: 1897 to 1910
Founded in 1897, San Diego State University (SDSU) is celebrating 125 years of history this year, which includes its first campus in University Heights in 1898. SDSU began as the San Diego Normal School in University Heights, a training facility for elementary school teachers. It became San Diego State Teachers College in 1921 and then moved in 1931 to Montezuma Mesa where it eventually became San Diego State University.
Samuel Black, First President of the Normal School
Samuel Black,
First President of the Normal School. Courtesy of SDSU Library Digital Collections.
In September 1898, the Board of Trustees selected Samuel Black as the new president of the San Diego Normal School.
A native of Scotland, Black came to California in 1868, teaching in rural schools and mining towns. He became a school principal, then Ventura County superintendent of schools, followed by his election as California superintendent of public instruction.
During his tenure as Normal School President, Black assembled a faculty with degrees from well-known universities to teach a variety of courses including English, mathematics, drawing, history and geography, physiology, sociology, education, biological sciences, physical training, manual training, and household arts.
Black was a man of stylish accoutrements; his gold-handled ebony cane was engraved with "S.T. Black Dec. 1886," and the scabbard of his saber was etched with "Presented to Major S.T. Black by Co. D. Ventura."
Student enrollment increased from 91 on opening day in 1898 to nearly 400 in 1910, the year Black retired.
Temporary Location Downtown
When the Normal School's first classes met on November 1, 1898, the University Heights campus had not yet been built, and temporary quarters were rented in the Hill Block Building at 6th and F Street in downtown San Diego, next to a dentist office and above a penny-candy store. President Black was undaunted, proclaiming that no other normal school "had so auspicious an opening."
The Grand Normal School Dedicated in 1899
San Diego Normal School, 1899. Courtesy of Online Archive of California.
Architect Irving Gill, who had worked with Frank Lloyd Wright on exposition buildings in the early 1890s, designed the main Normal School structure in the Beaux-Arts style of the 1893 Fine Arts Palace of the Chicago World Exposition.
The main central building of the new campus was dedicated on May 1, 1899, in University Heights, and east and west wings were soon added to give the school great architectural symmetry and grandeur.
Sadly, the monumental Normal School building was demolished by San Diego Unified School District in 1955, citing safety issues and a lack of compliance with building and fire codes, primarily due to the building auditorium’s second floor location. The site of the old Normal School is now a parking lot for the Eugene Brucker Education Center.
Teacher’s Training Annex Built in 1910
Teachers Training Annex in University Heights, Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Courtesy of University Heights Historical Society.
The Teachers Training Annex was built in 1910 as a training laboratory for the Normal School, where student teachers were observed as they provided instruction to school-age children.
The training school was elementary school for thousands of San Diego children, including President Black's daughter (Pauline Black Emery), Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and acclaimed San Diego philanthropist Christopher "Kit" Sickels.
The Teachers Training Annex still stands today and in 1999, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places through the efforts of the University Heights Historical Society.
For our entire blog series about the 125th anniversary of San Diego State University beginning at the Normal Street site, click below: