Healdsburg School by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1882

Healdsburg School.

By Editor

THE School Board spent several days last week in Healdsburg, looking after the interests of our school there. Some improvements are being made on the building, but fortunately it was so well planned that very few improvements can be made upon it; the cost of those being made is quite inconsiderable.

The citizens of Healdsburg have expressed themselves decidedly against the name we had selected for the school—Healdsburg Academy. We were aware that there are too many institutions called colleges in this western country. The number is greater than can be well sustained, and consequently they can hardly rise to a high place among the colleges of America. We therefore concluded to make a departure, and make ours a first-class school under the name of Academy. But it is objected that an Academy is looked upon as a school lower or less meritorious than a College, and that, of course, if that is called an Academy it will be considered inferior to the Colleges of this Coast. But such we have no intention that it shall be. And the objection is well-considered and has much weight. In view of this fact, and to place our institution in a proper light before the world, it was decided by a unanimous vote to give it the name of "Healdsburg College," and to incorporate under that name.

It was all the time considered a necessity to have a good boarding-house in connection with the school. Already the necessity is pressing heavily upon us, and it was decided to take immediate steps for the erection of a building. A splendid lot of five acres has been secured at a moderate cost, and if we succeed in getting the money which has recently been promised for the purpose, the work will be pushed on vigorously. If this be done it may be necessary to put up a temporary house for the students, and for the use of the workmen on the permanent building. Healdsburg is not a large place, and already the vacant houses, and every available place is being taken by those who are moving there to enjoy the benefits of the school.

We found Professor Brownsberger in good health and fine spirits. He enters enthusiastically into his work, and is well pleased with the location of the school and the prospect before it. Professor Grainger will enter as a teacher at the commencement of the coming term, and steps have already been taken to secure other help as may be needed.

The purchase of the excellent building and the fine lot on which it stands, on such favorable terms, was a most fortunate circumstance for our school enterprise. It has enabled us to do much more than was considered possible to do this year when the vote was taken by the State Conference last fall to start a school. We shall endeavor to move cautiously and prudently, but to do all that can be done to place the College on such a footing, that it shall meet the most sanguine expectations of its friends. We predict its success, and ask its friends not to forget its wants or their pledges in its behalf.