Jefferson-Lauderdale-Calhoun County AlArchives History - Schools .....Southern Female University October 21, 1892 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: L. Hanke lhbham@yahoo.com January 13, 2009, 7:25 pm ARTICLE FROM THE BIRMINGHAM AGE-HERALD NEWSPAPER, October 21, 1892 THE "OXFORD CAPS" Twenty-three pianos arrived from Florence yesterday for the Southern university. It took three box cars to hold them. There are eighty pupils taking music lessons. Professor Werren, the jolly German teacher of music, and his assistants, have all they can do. Miss Leftwich, one of the pretty teachers, formerly lived in Birmingham, and has many friends in the city. Two of her younger sisters are pupils. Miss Mabel Younglove, the private secretary, is the life of the school. The country wagons find a ready sale at the university for their chickens, eggs, potatoes, apples and so on. The rate of board is about $15 a month. The girls were glad to find Stollenwerck's dairy of seventy fine cows just in the rear of the university. They will be still more delighted next spring when the fruit and vegetables in the Lakeview orchard and garden come into market. Saturday afternoon an exploring party, under the guidance of the teachers, will be organized to visit the rock house and other natural curiosities of Red mountain. One of last year's pupils will arrive tonight. When the girls entered their special car after the Stevenson reception, they found half a dozen policemen guarding it, but not a boy was in sight. The girls were very much disappointed -- agreeably so. An old farmer passing by over the mountain saw the girls on the lawn in their black uniform, and thought he had discovered an orphan's home. Mr. Mims Stone sent each one of the teachers and pupils a free ticket to his soda water fountain. The Smith Boot and Shoe company sent out handsome souvenirs. The boys are trying hard to find cousins among the girls. Dr. Bass has promised to take the girls around to the factories and give them object lessons in manufacturing. The following are the names of the faculty and pupils of the Southern university: TEACHERS - Dr. L. D. Bass, Mrs. L. D. Bass, Professor and Mrs. S. F. Werren, Professor and Mrs. C. H. Tatum, Mrs. W. P. Ellis, Prof. P. H. Strickland, Miss Mattie Rutledge, Miss Agnes Leftwich, Miss Annie Broadus, Miss Sue Harrington, Miss Emma Carr, Miss Mattie Lee Horn, Miss Sallie Price, Mrs. Aldridge, Mrs. Broadus, Miss Mabel Younglove, Thomas Bass, Joe Bass, Imogene Tatum. Pupils - Misses Edith Partee, Blanch Partee, Minnie Wharton, Laura Roberson, Beulah Merrill, Lula Merrill, Mattie Brame, Lillie Benham, Minnie Bond, Ella Cotton, Estelle Cotton, Edith Chichester, Jennie Carlin, Ethel Beall, Mattie Brown, Sallie Broadfoot, Viola Covington, Aneta Bass, D. Dees, Minnie Dean, Jodie Dean, Annie Ellis, Virginia Ellis, India Ellis, Louise Ellis, Annie Strickland, Mattie Stodghill, Laura Sevier, Pauline Seay, Annie Smith, Mollie Shannon, Lucy Sanders, Dora South, Leona Leyon, Luta Thomas, Mene Trimble, Laura Van Dell, Willa BelleVanzile, Lizzie Wood, Hennie Whitmire, Mamie Sue Wallace, Monie Williams, Eulalie Williamson, Maude Younglove, Virgil Patterson, Annie Patton, Mae Price, Repta Price, Alice Quarles, Bessie Rector, Blanche Ries, Daisy Ridenhour, Marie Robertson, Bessie Robinson, Georgia Rollins, Mabel Rollins, Lillie Rogers, Stella Strickland, George Darby, P. H. Randolph and Sidney Strickland, Belle French, Marie Fitzpatrick, May Farrier, Grace Gilbert, Maggie Grundy, Lizzie Gatton, Katherine Gaines, Etta Heard, Minnie Hawkins, Vallie Fletcher, genie Holland, Allie Jones, Minnie Jernagan, Minta Jones, Susie Jennings, Irene Jones, Jessie Kirkland, Mary Ives, Louise Leftwich, Maggie Lipscomb, Anna Lee, Vernice Lambeth, Emma Lacy, Ida Guiberson, Ella McKleroy, Florence Murphy, Lucy Mulder, Gertrude Mitchell, Eula McWilliams, Nellie Mallory, Louise Maun, Edward Magruder, May and Bessie Monroe, Lena Nelson, Martha Norton, Monea Mathews, Henrietta Mitchell. ************* LAKEVIEW HOTEL as the Southern Female University. After Birmingham was established by the Elyton Land Company in 1871, Highland Avenue and Lakeview Park were constructed. Lakeview was located on the east end of Highland Avenue. As part of the Lakeview Park development, the Lakeview Hotel was opened to the public on July 12, 1887. The 60 by 250 frame structure was on a rise overlooking the park and lake. It was a two-story building with seventy-two rooms, sixty more rooms being added in 1888. Rooms on the front, both upstairs and downstairs, faced a porch that ran the length of the hotel. The building had a spacious dining hall, elaborate parlors, a large ballroom and billiard rooms. Electric lights, running water, and steam heating completed the setup. However, the Hotel was unable to compete with other resort hotels in the state, being meant only as a pleasure resort during the summer months, and it closed on August 21, 1891. In 1891, the president of the Elyton Land Company invited Hawthorne College of Florence, Alabama, to move to Birmingham and occupy the Lakeview Hotel building. That same year the members of the faculty and many of the students arrived at the Union Station in Birmingham, and were met by 10,000 people there to welcome the train which "brought in the school." The school became a ladies' seminary named Southern Female University. On December 6, 1893, the building burned and one student, Minnie Dean, lost her life. The following year, the school opened in Anniston. Lakeview Park in 1903 was leased to the Country Club of Birmingham, which remained at the site for 23 years. Later the property passed to the City of Birmingham and was operated as a municipal golf course under the name of the Highland Park Club. ************* Birmingham, AL Southern Female University Fire, Dec 1893 Posted August 4th, 2008 by Linda Horton COLLEGE GIRL BURNED TO DEATH Serious Fire in the Southern University at Birmingham. The southern female university at Birmingham, Ala., was burned to the ground Wednesday night. Miss Minnie Dean of Warrior, Ala., ran back into the burning building to save her jewelry and received burns from which she died yesterday morning. Virginia West, a servant, was badly burned, and her arm was broken in jumping from a window. J. R. Robbins was badly burned, and James Foster was also seriously injured while saving the young women. The money loss is $40,000 on the building and $20,000 on school furniture; insurance $20,000. The structure was frame, and the girls were saved with great difficulty, being hurried from their beds just in time to escape. The origin of the fire is thought to have been from a defective flue. Misses E. and C. James were proprietors. Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, MA 8 Dec 1893 *************** File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/jefferson/history/schools/southern333gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 7.3 Kb