Establishing Concord Normal School

The Regents ordered that Concord Normal School should begin May 10, 1875, continue twenty weeks, and then take an intermission until after the first Monday in March 1876. The Concord Normal School Executive Committee met and elected its officers on May 8, 1875 and formally opened the school on May 10, 1875 with Captain James Harvey French serving as the new school’s first Principal.

Although the First CSNS Building opened as mandated on May 10, 1875 it was not completely finished and furnished and the surrounding grounds were not cleared and fenced until 1876. It was used for classes until Commencement on July 2, 1886 and afterward was used for several years as a barn.

The Legislature of 1885, satisfied with the progress made by the Normal School, appropriated $5,000 for the erection of a more substantial building to replace the small frame structure. Construction of the two-story brick Second CSNS Building began in July, 1886 and was sufficiently complete in early January, 1887 in time for classes to begin on January 10, 1887. The Legislature of 1887 appropriated an additional $3,000 to complete the building and furnish it. It was enlarged in 1888 by an addition which cost $3,500. 

The Second CSNS Building was used until February, 1899.

The Legislature of 1897 appropriated $20,000 for renovation to transform the Second CSNS Building into an improved facility. All but one wing of the existing building was demolished, and to this was added another wing and additional rooms resulting in the Third CSNS Building, a handsome two-story red-brick structure described as well-arranged and with many advantages.

From modest beginnings created twenty-five years earlier at no cost to the State by a handful of families dedicated to the cause of education had arisen an impressive educational facility and institution of which the State, Normal School, and community could be proud.

A fire in 1910 changed the course of the institution. Read about it here.