page_title: Frostburg State University
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Frostburg State University / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Performing Arts Center to the left and the Gira Center to the right
context_page_description: Frostburg State University is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlands. Founded in 1898 by Maryland State Senator, John Leake, Frostburg was selected because the site offered the best suitable location without a cost to the state. Today, the institution is a largely residential university.
  With an enrollment of approximately 5,396 students, the university offers 47 undergraduate majors, 16 graduate programs, and a doctorate in educational leadership. The university is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and places primary emphasis on its role as a teaching and learning institution.
context_section_description: What was "Frostburg State Normal School No. 2" was founded by an act of the Maryland General Assembly, House Bill 742, from the General Appropriation Bill, on March 31, 1898. The bill was offered on the floor by John Leake of Vale Summit in Allegany County:
  For the direction of the erection of a building in Frostburg, Allegany County to be known as The State Normal School No. 2, for the sum of $20,000; and for the support of said school when established $5,000 annually, provided, the people of the town of Frostburg furnish the ground for the site of said building and deed the same to the state. 
  The State Board of Education selected and the town of Frostburg paid for the two-acre Beall Park as the location of the new school on August 9, 1898. 
  The cornerstone was laid in a ceremony on September 4, 1899. The Normal School's first building, Old Main, was positioned in Beall Park to face Loo Street (now known as College Avenue) and to look down Wood Street toward the downtown area of Frostburg.
  State Normal School No. 2, the first institution being located in Baltimore and then Towson, opened with its first class on September 15, 1902, with 57 students with Frostburg's first administrator, Principal Dr. Edward D. Murdaugh (18 November 1853 - May 1925). In 1904, eight students became the first graduates of the college, receiving a diploma and a lifetime teaching certificate. In 1912, a new gymnasium was authorized and completed in 1914. In 1919, a dormitory was opened. In 1925, a second dormitory was opened. In 1927, Allegany Hall, a new auditorium, gymnasium, and heating plant was added. In 1930, a six-room practice elementary school known as the new laboratory school was opened and the campus was extended to 40 acres, taking over the Brownsville area of Frostburg.
  The institution's original mission was to train teachers for public school systems statewide. In 1935, the school was renamed "State Teachers' College at Frostburg" (also called Frostburg State Teachers College) and began offering a four-year degree program leading to a bachelor of science in elementary education, after expanding the curriculum from two to three years in 1931 and 1934, respectively. Lillian Cleveland Compton served as the first female president of the college from 1945 to 1954. Compton replaced the 21-year President John L. Dunkle. Her mission as president was essentially to prepare the college for its planned closing. Enrollment stood at a mere 62 students in 1945. With outdated facilities and inadequate funding, the college was accredited only by the State Department of Education. As early as 1943, there had arisen in the General Assembly a movement to close the institution, which  eventually culminated in the Marbury Report.  
  The end of World War II brought a drastic change in the college's environment. In 1946, enrollment increased to 274 students, many being admitted under the new G.I. Bill. Though the movement to close the college persisted, it seemed misguided to those on the scene and was roundly opposed by both private citizens and civic groups in Frostburg and Western Maryland. With the strong support of State Superintendent of Schools Thomas Granville Pullen, Jr. and Governor William Preston Lane Jr., the General Assembly was petitioned to keep the School open and the Marbury Commission's recommendations died without ever being acted upon. In 1947, the American Council on Education suggested that Frostburg State Teachers College be closed. The report states:
  Your Commission does feel obligated to recommend the prompt discontinuance of the State Teachers College at Frostburg. We are convinced that the cost of operating this unit is not justified by the very small number of its graduates who are entering the school system of the state as teachers. In reaching this conclusion, we have been strongly influenced by the report of our survey staff as to the present condition of the physical facilities at Frostburg. It is apparent that the state faces a heavy capital expenditure if operations at that location are to be continued. Frankly, such
caption: Frostburg State University campus
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