The German Seminary by E. T. RUSSELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 28, 1910

The German Seminary

By E. T. RUSSELL

The committee appointed by the General Conference Council at College View, Neb., to secure a location for a German training-school for the United States and Canada, has just purchased what is known as Baird College, located at Clinton, Mo.

This building was erected in 1885 by W. T. Baird, of Mexico, Mo., at a cost of $75,000. In the original college holdings there was only one block of land. The committee has secured the plant, and about 112 acres of good agricultural land, for the sum of $27,000. The total monetary consideration in the purchase of the property was $37,500. Of this amount the citizens of Clinton paid $10,500, and, besides cash donations, concessions were made by persons owning the land purchased with the building, else we could not have secured the plant and land for the price named. It will cost about $5,000 to put everything in good repair, well fitted for our work; and then the entire plant, including land, ought to be worth from $75,000 to $100,000. We feel that God has led us in securing this property.

Buildings and Grounds

The college has been named by the committee the Clinton German Seminary. It is an imposing structure three and four stories in height, having a frontage of 185 feet, with a commodious veranda; the north wing is 120 feet deep, and the south wing, 110. The center elevation is four stories high, 75 feet from ground to pinnacle, and the wings are three stories. The building has 110 rooms, besides halls and corridors, and two large stairways (arranged to give convenient and easy access to, and egress from, all parts), together with an elevator. It has fifty-five bedrooms, and will accommodate over one hundred boarding-pupils, two to a room. The building is constructed of brick on a dressed stone foundation rising several feet above the surface, and presents a substantial and beautiful appearance. Its style of architecture is in keeping with the demands of this progressive age, and embodies every modern appliance and convenience which experience shows to be necessary to the health, security, comfort, and happiness of its inmates. It is provided with fire-escapes, lighted with gas, and supplied with bath-rooms on every floor, as well as speaking-tubes and electric bells. The building is constructed with a view to enlargement without destroying its architectural beauty or perfect interior arrangement. The seminary grounds consist of five acres situated in the southeastern part of the city, and reached by sidewalk. They are covered with grass and beautiful shade-trees. Aside from the campus there have been secured half a block immediately at the north, a six-acre tract at the south, and, on the east, farm land to the extent of 106 acres.

City of Clinton

Clinton is the county-seat of Henry County, one of the leading counties of Missouri. It has seven thousand inhabitants, and is eighty-seven miles by rail southeast of Kansas City. It is on the main line of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway, and branches of the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Memphis, and the St. Louis and San Francisco railroads, giving excellent railway facilities. It has a good system of public schools and colleges, and churches of different denominations. There is also a good system of water-works affording excellent water, besides well-equipped gas and electric-light plants. The city is supplied with banks, newspapers, and various manufacturing interests, including flouring-mills, broom factories, iron-foundry, potteries, brick-yard, and planing-mill. It is called the “model city of the prairie,” and is situated upon a natural elevation, and surrounded by a rich agricultural country, well watered by many streams. Abundant timber affords fuel, and, in addition, in the surrounding vicinity are several thick veins of choice coal. Clinton is fortunately located in a land of cheap coal, as Kansas mine run coal can be delivered free on board cars at Clinton for two dollars a ton, or placed in the college coal pit for $2.50 a ton.

We feel, all things considered, that the committee has been exceedingly fortunate in securing this property.

E. T. RUSSELL, Chairman.