y
First ns year in
2W Gh REVIEW
Stag(-
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led from
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Q*Ke Hilltop
AND EARLIER
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Published By The Students Of Mars Hill College
program;
n, presid“
the plaF
MARS HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, APRIL 20, 1940.
No. 13.
ts Enjoy
the fountain Hikes
sp«
r a Blue Ridge.
)ughout the year there
TyjT„j.g' trips, some of them
■ir»n cs
larnisi^®**’*’^ Spots
le remembers the hike
* vinging bridge across
AIN rushing stream
3 miles away; the hike
• mill, little more than a
_ . y, with its concrete dam
e ICO j.ghot wheel that creaks
the picnics at the
^^in the college campus,
;ar stream sluices down
t rock; and the picnics
E R ododendron glen, also
E A r'■
ry one remembers, too,
irough organizational groups
FV beauty in the
‘ ^ known resort region of
icthe Biltmore Estate,
NG villa erected and fur-
r\JQQf^^^ Vanderbilts; Chim-
ind its highest precipice
^AIN^,^' Great Smokies:
And
BAN';'
’.s branches of Pisgah
orest; and numerous
ic spots.
dill Was
\ College
In
’irsf Chartered Col-
\ Western North
Carolina
was the first insti-
•N PA higher learning estab-
^ND VO^Testem North Carolina.
And
of the pioneers in the
. region and chartered
igislature three years
first led a precarious
Only ten families lived
.ee miles of the school;
iN^e virtually impassable
students were few.
rvice ■ on its feet, it had to
of the Civil War,
IHDJ* lich two of its three
I, were burned, the third
laged. School was dis-
for a short time,
lean years of recon-
enrollment grew but
^^^^^ncial difficulties were
superable; the college
inded only impercepti-
AveS''
n 1897 R, L. Moore
. growth began to pick
pfed.
Eft’s
0
‘Science'" Is Grown Now
a Allen, beauties Of Famous
Mr. Ramialachian Area
en's con!-4»-e Open
giving I east, the Blue Ridge:
May Gre°'^*^west, the Great
any of the students
Byrd,
3r the iiered by the ever-wind-
Williamiwhich lead into Mars
lomathiaB™‘tiat®^ into the mys-
lirections in this little
illage of approximately
s of ti.dred (census figures
aan Harp^unannounced).
lalian so4s as their key, they
■uce B. finding their way
Philomatf*^ in.*®
Mars Hill Is Largest
Junior College In South
for the first time,
> were
Hoyt Bleaks, like lionesque
all. ee miles away, which.
To their full stature rose the walls of the new $100,000 science
building here this week, as work continued according to schedule for
the completion of the structure in time for use next term. The red
gash of the excavation, the sound of hammers at work on scaffolding,
and more recently the smell of heated tar pervading the campus as
the roof went on—these are a part, too, of the year in review.
STUDENTS WATCH WITH INTEREST
the rise of new science building
WHAT^S THIS?
This year( and other years,
too) in review!
That is the purpose of this
special edition of the Hilltop
to picture and to present the
life that has unfolded on the
campus during months now
gone.
Having been a part of what
is recorded here, you may get a
real thrill when you unearth
this review from the bottom of
your trunk some rainy Sunday
afternoon several years from
now. We hope so.
Three - Story Structure Is
A Center Of Campus
Attention
A Slave Jailed
For Debt Here
Joe, Slave Of Trustee, TVas
Surety For Mars Hill
C alley e
He was a rather young, medi
um-sized, religious Negro, Joe
was, and he was put in an Ashe
ville jail for the benefit of Mars
Hill college back in 1856.
That was when the college was
just beginning; in fact, the con
struction of the first building was
scarcely completed, and the con
tractors, unable to get their fee
from the trustees of the toddling
college, took Joe as a surety.
J. Woodson Anderson, first
chaiimian of the board of trustees,
was responsible for this. When
the contractors came, determined
to foreclose—thus shutting down
the small mountain school—unless
some satisfactory arrangement
could soon be made, Mr. Ander
son suggested that they take Joe,
his most valued and his favorite
slave, as security. They did.
Money Raised
In the meantime Mr. Anderson
and other members of the board
of trustees tried to raise the funds
needed; and during the weeks
that followed they got the money,
released Joe, and cleared the debt.
They went over rutted roads
that were an angry red; they
spent days in behalf of the school
when their personal affairs needed
them; and they “campaigned”
over much of the surrounding,
mountainous country. But they
got Joe out.
From the October day when
tall President-emeritus R. L.
Moore shoveled away the dirt in
the ground-breaking ceremony
for Mars Hill’s new science build
ing until now, when the roof caps
the three-story walls, students
have eagerly followed the prog
ress of construction.
First they watched the plows
and scoops eat into the red clay
which had to be removed to make
room for the huge basement
which will be virtually the equiva
lent of a whole story.
Through the increasing cold of
a severe winter they saw the
walls, growing a little each day,
begin to rise, the steel encased
gaps indicating where the win
dows would be.
A short time ago the walls
reached their full height, and the
decorative glass brick began
taking their place in the impres
sive facade of the building.
Almost every Sunday found
some students—and faculty mem
bers, too, for that matter—stroll
ing down to the building “to see
how things are getting along” on
the structure which will house
classes and laboratories in the
physical sciences, home economics,
and mathematics.
DEAN RETURNS
Dean I. N. Carr returned
here this week from a meeting,
held in Atlanta, for the South
ern association of colleges and
secondary schools — the pri
mary accrediting agency for
institutions of higher learning
in the South.
The only North Carolina col
lege west of the Blue Ridge to
have membership in this asso
ciation, and the largest of the
three junior colleges in North
Carolina thus accredited. Mars
Hill was admitted to the or
ganization fourteen years ago,
in 1926, with Dean Carr as the
official representative of the
college at the meeting of the
association.
In the last eight years credits
from Mars Hill college have
been accepted by 136 senior
colleges, universities, and pro
fessional schools — adequate
testimony that a Mars Hill
grade counts anywhere.
And Who Gould Ever Forget
The Black - Gold, The Blue - White?
order; and work in the literary
societies began.
For more than a couple of
The time was September 8;
the occasion, the meeting of the
two of the four literary
societies. Young fellows, with
grins so broad that they could
whisper into their own ears with
out any difficulty, formed an
irregular line from the lobby in
the administration building to the
society halls. Everybody was
shaking hands, everybody was
talking, everybody was happy. It
looked as if each person was a
politician and election just a day
off.
When the seats in the halls
were taken, in each society three
dignified young men gallantly
marched to the chairs behind the
dais. Each president raised his
gavel; both meetings came to
more than a
weeks there were the campaigns
for new members from the fresh
man class — long, persuasive
“sessions” in dormitory rooms;
hand shaking on the campus side
walks; spirited but gentlemanly
arguments by two old-timers from
rival societies as they tried to
convince a capable-looking stu
dent, just arriving on the campus,
that he should be a Philomathian
or a Euthalian, that she should
be a Clio or a Nonpareil.
Then the real work started—
getting the anniversary programs,
(the supreme student accomplish-
(Continued on page 6)
Students Come
From Wide Area
Rapid Growth Due In Part
To Religious
Emphasis
Delving into records this year,
staff members have discovered
that Mars Hill is now—and has
been for the last few years—the
largest junior college in south
eastern United States.
Its present capacity enrollment
of 784 students from 85 North
Carolina counties, 18 states, and
three foreign countries is the
culmination of eighty-four years
of growth, for the college was
founded in 1856.
Carnegie Grants
For Books, Music
Library, Music Department
Receive Foundation
Gifts
On those Wednesday mornings
in chapel and perhaps in those
special music appreciation hours
at other times during the week,
students were stirred—as really
great music always stirs when
well presented—by some of the
600 recordings the college has of
the works of Bach, Beethoven,
Wagner, Handel, and others.
And during those long winter
evenings, either in the library or
while curled up in a chair or in
the bed at the dormitory, students
read one of the hundreds of new
books which the library received
this year.
In these ways Andrew Caregie
made the Mars Hill experience a
richer one this term. In the last
few years he made, through the
Carnegie corporation, two contri
butions to the cultural life of the
college—one through a grant for
(Continued on page 6)
Recent Growth Rapid
This growth has been especially
rapid during the last ten years,
during which the enrollment has
doubled, the living and instruc
tional facilities for students
greatly improved.
Aside from an uncompromising
ly high academic standards, per
haps the most influential factor in
the growth of Mars Hill has been
an equally uncompromising em
phasis upon Christian education.
Problems both for the student
group as a whole and for the
individuals are settled constantly
in accord with the spiritual
emphasis which is given the class
room, and in the chapel services
which are held daily during the
week and attended by all students.
Recently the erection of a thor
oughly modern dormitory for
girls, a broad program of land
scaping and beautification of the
campus of more than 100 acres,
and the construction of the new
$100,000 science building have
increased the attractiveness and
effectiveness of the college.
Special Courses
Were Highlights
Music, Art, Business, Ex
pression Made
Memories
A brick building filled with
pianos having different pieces
played upon them at the same
time; twenty - five typewriters
clattering away to the rhythm of
a phonograph record; a student at
work on a half-painted canvas in
a quiet room whose walls are
nearly covered with copies of the
world’s masterpieces of art—these
are memories of students in some
of Mars Hill’s extra departments.
The collective discords from
the music building became pleas
ing accords to a student who
entered one of the small studios,
honeycombing the oldest structure
on the campus, in search of his
roommate—that is, if he happened
to have the right roommate this
year.
In Miss Bowden’s studio, be
sides getting paint on their smocks
and getting something of a mild
affection for the way paint
smells, students learned about
(Continued on page 6)