History of Academy Square
The Brigham Young Academy was one of the largest school buildings in the western Rocky Mountain region. The Principal of the Academy, Karl G. Maeser, designed the building with the help of Don Carlos Young as the architect. The Academy was located in Northern Provo. The name of the building has changed many times: in 1898, it was known as the High School Building, and in 1922 it was known as the Education Building, which it remained until 1968.
For the next 20 years, Academy Square remained vacant and slowly began to deteriorate. While real estate developers were eager to tear down the dilapidated buildings, Provo residents supported the preservation of the historic site. In 1997, a municipal bond and private donations financed the renovation of the Education Building; the other three buildings on Academy Square were demolished to make room for a parking garage. Fundraising and restoration efforts were spearheaded by BYU professor L. Douglas Smoot, who gained the moniker "the man who saved Academy Square." Construction was completed in 2001 and the project succeeded to what is now known as the Provo City Library.
Read more about this topic: Provo City Library
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, academy and/or square:
“There is no history of how bad became better.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“The square dance fiddler’s first concern is to carry a tune, but he must carry it loud enough to be heard over the noise of stamping feet, the cries of the “caller,” and the shouts of the dancers. When he fiddles, he “fiddles all over”; feet, hands, knees, head, and eyes are all busy.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)