MARTIN LUTHER COLLEGE
1880s 7 C Commencement Concert Though small, the student body performed a full Th commencement concert in 1887. Later called “June Night” or “May Night,” the 1887 concert featured an orchestra and male choir, as well as smaller ensembles and the St. Paul’s choir. Bilingualism being the norm, choirs sang in both English and German. The concert was staged in New Ulm’s Union Hall at 26 North Broadway. A cultural center built in 1873 for the Arbeiter Verein, or Workingmen’s Association, the building housed a saloon, café, and large halls for meetings, operas, theatricals, and dances—which made the building at any other time verboten for the young men of DMLC.
8 A “Freundship” with
St. S Paul’s School 1887 Commencement Concert program
1885 St. Paul’s church and parsonage
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church opened its elementary school one year after DMLC opened. Its 1885 enrollment was 75 students taught by one teacher, a Mr. Abele. Since Abele spoke only German, a DMLC theology student named Freund was asked to teach the English subjects. Thus, the St. Paul’s-DMLC partnership was established. For decades, DMLC students acted as short- and long-term substitute teachers at St. Paul’s. In addition, on Wednesday afternoons normal students (teachers in training) walked down the hill and practice taught—first in the old church/parsonage, then in the building erected in 1900 on the same site, kittycorner from the present church. This arrangement held until shortly after World War I, when both the school building and DMLC’s student teaching program expanded greatly. To this very day, St. Paul’s continues to be a popular site for student teachers, and the college continues to be grateful to the New Ulm families who let the aspiring teachers hone their craft in the St. Paul’s classrooms.
1900 St. Paul’s school erected on same site as 1885 building
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