1929
The stock market crashed in October. Within three weeks, the paper loss exceeded $30 billion.
The St. Valentine's Day massacre of six members of a gang occurred in Chicago. It was the
year of Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, O'Neill's Strange Interlude, and the Lynd's landmark
study of Muncy, Indiana, called Middletown. Armstrong perfected FM radio. Lt. James
Doolittle made the first "blind" instrument landing of an airplane at Mitchell Field, N. Y.
Commander Richard E. Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole. Sheffield Farms in New
York began using waxed paper cartons instead of bottles for delivering milk. The average New
York City business girl averaged $33.50 for a 50-hour work week. The American Engineering
Council announced plans for uniform traffic signals across the country. For transcontinental
trips, the Greyhound Bus Company bought a fleet of double-decker busses with sleeping
accommodations on the upper level to make the five-day trip from New York to San Francisco.
Handing out statues designed by Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley, the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and/or Sciences honored the film work of Janet Gaynor, Emit Jannings,
and the picture Wings, making them the first "Oscar" winners. Bell Labs demonstrated a system
for transmitting television pictures in full color.
• Annie Clarkson Died • Phalanx Tapping Ceremonies
• Statistics • Phi Delta Sigma
• Deans Appointed • Sports Excitement
• New Faculty • Hockey Stars
• New Courses • Edison Jubilee
• Phalanx Formed • Karma Fraternity
Annie Clarkson Died.
The last of the original Trustees who had met in 1894 to found the
College, Miss Annie Clarkson, died on October 2. She had been the closest of any of the family
in the development of the school and the steadiest in attendance at meetings of the Trustees.
She left the College $100,000 outright for the endowment, and the residual amount of $900,000
was placed in trust for the College with its income to go to her sister, Mrs. Emily Clarkson
Moore, until her death, when it would revert to the College.
Already a benefactor and staunch friend of the College, and realizing the College's
severe need for more adequate facilities for instruction, Mrs. Moore magnanimously turned it
over to the College at once so the move to Clarkson Hill could begin as soon as feasible. The
Clarkson Handbook 1931-32 added, "The Board of Trustees expect to begin building on
Clarkson Hill as soon as proper arrangements can be made." It took 20 years before that move
began in earnest.
A description of the Clarkson estate revealed an interesting plan for campus
development. In addition to Snell Field, the student-built athletic field, the estate also contained
the caretaker's house between the Snell Field bleachers and Holcroft, the main building on the
estate. It was expected eventually to become the president's home. Southeastward toward the
river from Holcroft lay several buildings used for storage, including one large barn used as the
aeronautical laboratory, and as a storage building for aeroplanes. Beyond these to the east lay a
large open field which planners felt could be used for an enclosed hockey arena, a row of
