New York State Normal School
05/07/1844 AD founded
The institution began as the New York State Normal School (or Albany Normal School) on May 7, 1844, by a vote of the State Legislature. Beginning with 29 students and four faculty in an abandoned railroad depot on State Street in the heart of the city, the Normal School was the first New York State-chartered institution of higher education.
Originally dedicated to training New York students as schoolteachers and administrators, by the early 1890s the “School” had become the New York State Normal College at Albany and, with a revised four-year curriculum in 1905, became the first public institution of higher education in New York to be granted the power to confer the bachelor's degree.
A new campus — today, UAlbany's Downtown Campus — was built in 1909 on a site of 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) between Washington and Western avenues. By 1913, the institution was home to 590 students and 44 faculty members, offered a master's degree for the first time, and bore a new name — the New York State College for Teachers at Albany. Enrollment grew to a peak of 1,424 in 1932. By this time, the College for Teachers, or "Albany State" as it was often called for short, had developed a curriculum similar to those found at four-year liberal arts colleges, but it did not abandon its primary focus on training teachers.
In 1948 the State University of New York system was created, with the College for Teachers and the state's other teacher-training schools serving as the nuclei. SUNY, including the Albany campus, became a manifestation of the vision of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, who wanted a public university system to accommodate the college students of the post–World War II baby boom. To do so, he launched a massive construction program that developed more than 50 new campuses.
Reflecting a broadening mission, the College for Teachers changed its name to SUNY College of Education at Albany in 1959. In 1961, it became a four-year liberal arts college as the State University College at Albany.
Lattitude: 42.6525° N
Longitude: 73.7572° W
Region: North America
Modern Day United States
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New York (NY) Nation
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University at Albany, SUNY Public research universi...
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