History of Brigham Young University - Early Years

Early Years

BYU's origin can be traced back to 1862. In that year, Warren Dusenberry started a Provo school in a prominent adobe building called Cluff Hall located in the northeast corner of 200 East and 200 North. Dusenberry paid the $50 a month in rent and manufactured the desks for the school himself. In 1865, he left his school to enter into private business and to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1869, he started another school in Provo with his brother, this time in a different building. This school flourished, so they relocated to a building called the Lewis Building on Center and 300 West. When the student body of the Dusenberry brothers' school hit 300, the school became a part of the University of Deseret, based in Salt Lake City. The school in Provo was called the Timpanogos branch. On October 16, 1875, Brigham Young, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally purchased the Lewis Building. This is the commonly held founding date of BYU. Young broke the school off from the University of Deseret and christened it "Brigham Young Academy."

Classes at the new Brigham Young Academy commenced on 3 January 1876. Reed Smoot was the first of 29 students to register for classes on that day . Warren Dusenberry served as interim principal of the school for several months until April 1876, when Brigham Young's choice for principal arrived, a German immigrant named Karl Maeser. In January 1884, a fire started in a chemistry lab and destroyed the Lewis Building. Students temporarily held class in three separate locations before relocating to a warehouse on University Avenue. The students attended class in the ZCMI warehouse until January 1892, when an elaborate brick and sandstone building called the "BY Academy Building" was completed.