Flashback

Climbing the Hill at Kent

A wooded ridge was the central topographic feature of the 53-acre farm William S. Kent gifted to the state when the Normal School Commission selected Kent as the site of the new northeastern normal school in 1910.

When the newly appointed Board of Trustees met on July 17, 1911, the trustees named it Kent State Normal School in appreciation for the gift, making it the first state-assisted campus in Ohio to bear the name of an individual.

At that memorable meeting, the trustees also named John Edward McGilvrey as the school’s first president and chose Cleveland architect George Francis Hammond to draft a campus master plan and design its original buildings.

With Hammond, McGilvrey envisioned a semicircle of classical revival buildings at the top of the hill, originally known as “Normal Hill.” However, as construction was underway in 1911 on the first two buildings, Lowry and Merrill halls, McGilvrey grew impatient. He began extension classes in 25 northeastern Ohio communities and marked the start of Kent State’s regional campus system.

As McGilvrey hired the first faculty members in 1912, Merrill Hall was still under construction. It opened for the first summer term held on campus on May 19, 1913, with 47 students and 20 faculty members. On June 16, a second term began with 290 students registered. Lowry Hall, originally built as a women’s dormitory, didn’t have enough rooms, so McGilvrey appealed to local homeowners to absorb the overflow.

Impressed with what was happening at Kent, the Ohio General Assembly appropriated funds for three more buildings: Kent Hall, the Administration Building and a power plant.

UPDATED: Thursday, April 25, 2024 10:51 PM

A dirt path leads to Merrill Hall, 1913. The first campus building, it housed classrooms, administrative offices and the library until 1927.

Students walking around construction along the path that would become Hilltop Drive in front of Lowry Hall, Merrill Hall, the Administration Building and Science Hall (renamed Kent Hall in 1938 when McGilvrey Hall was built), circa 1915.

Leaving the Tabernacle, a large temporary wooden structure on Front Campus that served as an assembly hall, auditorium, theater and classroom while Science (Kent) Hall was being built in 1914. The Tabernacle, located at the foot of the steps leading up to the Administration Building, had a wooden roof, canvas drop curtains for walls, an earthen floor and wood benches. It could hold up to 1,000 people.

President John McGilvrey addresses the first student assembly in the Tabernacle, 1914.

A group of girls and women perform a dance around the maypole on the Front Campus lawn; Lowry and Merrill halls are visible behind them. Dances and drills (photographed on May 22, 1915) were performed for an audience gathered for Extension Day (later named Campus Day).

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In those first years, students and faculty members made their way up steep, often muddy paths and navigated around construction sites to reach the buildings on the hill. In 1914, the summer sessions met on Front Campus in tent classrooms and a large temporary pavilion (with a wood roof, canvas walls and a dirt floor) while Kent Hall was being built.

“Kent State hill is weariful long—but we trudge on together, a glad-hearted throng.”

The Tabernacle, as it was called, could hold 1,000 people, serving as an assembly hall, auditorium, theater and classroom. On July 29, 1914, a crowd of 3,000 jammed the pavilion and Front Campus to see the school’s first 34 graduates receive a two-year diploma.

In 1929, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the addition of colleges of liberal arts and the awarding of degrees in arts and sciences, as well as baccalaureate degrees in education—and the school (known since 1915 as Kent State Normal College) became Kent State College. (Six years later, in 1935, it became Kent State University.)

This official "Kent State" song was taught to incoming freshmen

Perhaps to commemorate this achievement, and all it took to get there, May Prentice, one of the first four hires in 1912, wrote the lyrics to “Kent State”—with the apt refrain, “Climbing the hill at Kent”—which appeared in the 1930 Chestnut Burr.

It was set to music and included in the first edition of Official Songs of Kent State College, published in 1931, appearing again in a second edition published in 1951. For decades, these official songs were taught to incoming freshmen.

Kent State songbook

At the dedication of the May H. Prentice Memorial Gate, on Jan. 15, 1935, the diploma and degree classes from 1928 to 1934 presented the gateway to the college as a tribute to Prentice, who was unable to attend. After the presentation, the students sang “Kent State,” in addition to musical selections by the Men’s and Women’s Glee clubs.

If you would like to hear “Kent State” sung (probably for the first time in decades), Bryon Black II, adjunct professor in the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music and director of Coro Cantare and Gospel Choir, had Coro Cantare students record it in March.