History
The present site of Provo was settled by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in 1849 when Fort Utah was built near the Provo River. The Mormons, fleeing from persecution in Nauvoo, Illinois, headed west under the direction of Brigham Young and established themselves in the Great Salt Lake area in Utah. Provo was the first settlement in Utah Valley and was part of a plan to establish a chain of communities extending from Salt Lake City. The Mormon communities were planned according to a grid system set forth by their leaders.
The first schools in Provo were sometimes held in public buildings and private residences. In the year 1851, the Provo City council gained power to establish, support and regulate common schools, and in 1853 property taxes were approved for building schools. Before the 1870s in Provo, school buildings were small adobe structures. Then in 1875 one united school district was formed and an era of better buildings and schools began. In 1898 the Board of Education approved plans for the construction of Maeser Elementary. The school was dedicated November 9, 1898 with Karl G. Maeser as guest of honor.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, with note that it was then the oldest public school in Provo that was still in use, and that it "is one of the best-preserved examples of the work of Utah architect Richard Watkins".
Read more about this topic: Maeser Elementary
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)