DEDICATION OF STRIEBY HALL.
By Mrs. M. E. H. Pope, Tougaloo.
Thanksgiving Day, 1881.
One year ago to-day we gathered in the old chapel of Washington Hall to recount the mercies of the year which God had crowned with goodness.
How little did we anticipate the changes which one year more would bring to us. We were trying to make the best of the (dis) comforts and (in) conveniences of the old building; but it could not hold half of the young men, and it seemed to us that the old rooms over the shop and wood-house, and the temporary barracks, had served their day and generation, and we needed—yes, there was no doubt of it—we needed a new building. We asked the Lord for one, and the beginning of the answer to our prayer was the sweeping away by the flames, in one short hour, of our main school building, which included chapel and boys’ dormitories. But, though cast down, we were not destroyed utterly, for we had a large new barn, out of which we turned the cattle; dubbed it “Ayrshire Hall,” and moved in. We were sure the Lord Jesus would not forget that His birthplace was a manger, and would glorify this refuge with His presence; and so He did.
Our numbers were larger than ever, and it was a wonder to us sometimes where they were all stowed away; but we were always able to find a place for “one more,” and so the year went on and ended. The boarding hall had been enlarged during the last half of the year by the addition of a wing and another story, so it could accommodate more than twice as many girls as before. And now followed a busy summer, during which the boarding hall was finished off and a substantial three story brick building erected. A good many buildings have been put up at various places by legacies and named for the dead, but we thought it right to give honor to the living as well, and by request of the Faculty, the Executive Committee voted to name this building after the Association’s representative man, Dr. M. E. Strieby. And so a tablet over the main entrance bears the words “Strieby Hall.” The work upon this building has been entirely done by colored men, except a few days work by the traditional “plumber.”
To-day we met to keep our Thanksgiving feast and to dedicate this building to the cause of Christian education. Oh, such gladness and thankfulness as filled our hearts, and was voiced by the choir in the opening anthem, “Praise the Lord!” After the opening exercises voluntary expressions of thanksgiving were called for. Mr. Hartsfield, our head carpenter, said he could not help comparing the present with twenty-five years ago, when he little dreamed of ever participating in such exercises as these, and said his heart was so full of thankfulness he could not express it. Others spoke of their gratitude for the blessings of the year and of this day. Mr. H. W. Hubbard, our genial Treasurer, who was with us, told the young people where the money to furnish them these advantages comes from.
An address was then delivered by Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, which will be long remembered by us all, but especially by our students, to whom it has already proved a real inspiration. Dr. Roy followed in a wonderfully appropriate dedicatory prayer.
The day seemed all too short to express the joy and thanksgiving that filled our hearts. Truly He has brought “the blind by a way that they knew not.” We finished up the day with a lecture at night from Dr. Roy, who always has something good for us.
Our new building has, besides chapel and recitation rooms, family rooms now occupied by Prof. Hatch and wife, who have charge of the young men, and dormitories for sixty-eight young men.