1870s
February 4, 1874 — At their first meeting in Denver, the college trustees frame a charter. Five days later it is filed with Colorado Territory. At first the Trustees named the new institution "Colorado Springs College," but subsequently only the name "Colorado College" was used. The Board of Trustees appointed the Rev. Thomas Nelson Haskell as the financial agent of the new College. It would be Haskell's job to get Colorado College organized as a functioning institution of higher learning.
February 9, 1874 -- The Charter of Colorado College is officially filed with the Territory of Colorado at the territorial capital in Denver. Colorado College comes into existence as a legal entity.
May 6, 1874 — Preparatory classes convene in the Wanless Building, Pikes Peak Avenue at Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs (currently the site of Bank One, formerly First National Bank). These are the first classes ever held at a college or university level institution in Colorado. At the end of this first session of classes, in July, 16 of the students are admitted to college rank.
September 12, 1874 -- Colorado College begin the 1874-1875 academic year. The college classes held at this time were the first college classes in the history of Colorado. The college is located in a temporary home -- a small wooden building in the 300 block of North Tejon Street across from Acacia Park, where the men students occasionally went to play ball and get their exercise. The building is the home of Colorado College for six years.
August 1, 1876 — The Territory of Colorado is accorded statehood.
Student Life
1876 — The college’s 76 students include a Canadian. There are two women on the faculty, Minnie Mackenzie, who teaches English, and Georgia Gaylord, who teaches music.
The Campus
1875 — The Colorado Centennial College Association is formed by the women of the city to raise money for a permanent college building, eventually known as Cutler Hall.
July 4, 1877 — Ground is broken for the first permanent building.
1880s
Academic Life
May 31, 1882 — the first commencement convenes in Cutler Hall for graduates Parker Sedgwick Halleck and Frederick Wells Tuckerman.
1888 — A new president, William F. Slocum, introduces the modern two-semester
system, which survives for 82 years.
Student Life
1880 — The Occident, the first student publication, appears as a combined literary magazine and newspaper.
The "College Boys," a student baseball team, is organized.
1882 — The Colorado College Athletic Association forms to encourage football. On Christmas Day, the Sigafus Hose Company is doused 10–8 in the college’s first grid contest.
1884 — When the Columbian Club, a women’s residence hall, is razed by fire, the Colorado College Hose Company forms with its own firehouse and bell where Slocum Hall now stands. Two years later, it joins three other companies to fight a downtown blaze, its first call to duty.
The Phoenix Literary Society organizes as a coeducational forum for literary and elocutionary endeavors.
1885 — Denver University loses 12–0 to Colorado College in the first intercollegiate football contest held west of the Mississippi. After the game, CC acknowledges using players who are not college students.
1889 —The Women’s Educational Society (W.E.S.) is formed under the auspices of Mrs. Mary Slocum, wife of President Slocum.
The college footballers lose 14–6 to Colorado School of Mines in the
first contest of a long rivalry.
The Campus
1886 — Electricity, and with it sonorous class bells, is installed. The campus’s first water closet graces Cutler Hall.
1888 — Hagerman Hall, the first men’s residence, is erected at Cascade
Avenue and Cache La Poudre Street. Eventually a United States Weather Bureau
station occupies its top story and roof.
1890s
Academic Life
1890 — Foreign language literature courses are first offered.
1892 — The Colorado Summer School of Science, Philosophy and Languages is convened on campus by state educators. Sessions continue for only four summers.
1893 — Katherine Lee Bates, an English instructor from Wellesley College, spends her summer on the faculty of the Colorado Summer School. Her wagon trip to the top of Pikes Peak inspires her to compose the words to the patriotic song "America the Beautiful."
D. K. Pearsons offers a matching contribution to a college endowment. Slocum meets the challenge in a three-year campaign, resulting in the college’s first substantial endowment. Men students pull a triumphal buggy laden with Slocum wielding a bulging pillowcase labeled "$150,000."
1895 — Florian Cajori, professor of physics, conducts the first successful x-ray experiments west of the Mississippi.
1896 — The art department is formed, courses not for credit.
Student Life
1890 — The Scientific Society forms, first of many curriculum-based student clubs.
1891 — A men’s military drill team is formed, with uniforms and rifles. Women form the Plantagenets and arm with brooms.
1892 — The first scheduled banquet of the Colorado College Alumni Association is held, with election of charter officers.
1894 — Infirmary services are inaugurated with the appointment of Grace Preston, M.A., M.D., as lecturer in physiology and Hygiene.
1895 — Elizabeth Powell and Nettie Carey are the college’s first women graduates.
The Student Volunteer Band organizes to train foreign missionaries. Sixteen alumni worked overseas by 1914.
1896 — Mabel Ruth Loomis arrives and is appointed Dean of Women the following year. Her standards for feminine conduct were legendary; she is credited with improving women’s lot in the early days of coeducation.
1897 — The Coburn Library Book Club organizes. At its dissolution in 1946, it had donated over 10,000 volumes.
The Glee and Mandolin Clubs, men’s musical societies, convene. The following year, women form a chorus.
1898 — Colorado School of Mines baseballers inaugurate the college’s first playing field, subsequently named Washburn Field. President Slocum throws out the first ball.
A football game is delayed at halftime when both teams and the crowd rush downtown to fight the fire that razes Palmer’s original Antlers Hotel.
The Pearsons Society, another literary society, forms. The annual Pearsons–Appolonian debate becomes a campus event.
1899 — The Tiger begins publication, supplanted in 1970 by The
Catalyst.
The Campus
1891 — Students raise funds and construct a temporary wooden gymnasium southwest of Cutler Hall. It is the men’s athletic facility for nearly a quarter-century.
Montgomery Hall, a women’s residence, is built from funds raised by W.E.S. (Montgomery was Mrs. Slocum’s family name.)
1894 — Coburn Library is completed at the present site of Armstrong Hall. President Slocum, in an impromptu moment, asked a friend for the entire building in addition to the books to be housed in it.
Wolcott Observatory is dedicated at the present site of El Pomar Sports Center.
1898 — Ticknor Hall is dedicated. A photograph of the Sphinx hung for years in the entrance hall, symbolic of the anonymous donor.