Meet Wade R. Brown, Founder of the Greensboro Music Scene

Wade R. Brown with his 1916 Music History Class

Although the Departments of Vocal Music and Instrumental Music had been unified into a single department at the State Normal and Industrial School by 1910, the quality of student education remained modest.  The focus of the Music Department was to cultivate its female student body for positions of leadership in churches and schools. The Greensboro music scene could be described as provincial, at best. Julius I. Foust, School president after Charles Duncan McIver’s death in 1906, understood that for his progressive vision of the campus to be realized, the School would require not only physical growth, but also an artistic and cultural invigoration. Success in this immense undertaking required an individual with force of personality, energy, and competency equal to the challenge. Foust selected Wade R. Brown (1866-1950) for the task.

When Julius Foust found Wade R. Brown, he was serving as Dean of the School of Music at Meredith College. A pianist by training, Brown had served on the faculty at Baker University, the Baptist Female College in Greenville, SC, and Winthrop College in South Carolina before holding his position at Meredith College. During his tenure at Meredith, Brown was described as a “masterful man,” and “an uncommon organizer… [who] knows how to marshall his forces and control and direct a great department.” When Brown was appointed Director of Music at the State Normal and Industrial School, some individuals in the Meredith College community took Foust’s seduction of their beloved music director, with the promise of higher salary, personally. One article stated, “The worst blow that has ever befallen Meredith College was the resignation of Mr. Wade R. Brown… it does hit rather hard for an institution like the Normal to secure one of our best.” Brown, perhaps seeking a new challenge, transitioned from Raleigh to Greensboro, building his residence on 1022 West Market St.

When Brown stepped on to the campus for the first time as Director of the Department of Music in 1912, he walked into the obstacles of a newly unified department, almost exclusively focused on voice and keyboard training, with no single building dedicated to teaching and rehearsal. Although the School did cultivate an orchestra, the city of Greensboro did not support any professional music organization. Therefore, aside from church music, Greensboro and the School existed in a musical void, as there were few venues in which to perform and no body of local, professional musicians to offer accompaniment to attract quality touring performers, let alone provide the enrichment of a consistent concert series. Brown, after taking a few months to settle into the area, assessed the situation, and instituted immediate improvements ("immediate" as in one month into his first semester).

Illustration from the 1914 Yearbook

The first means of improving the musical reputation of the School was to assess what was being taught and overhaul the music curriculum. Although the Department of Music was officially unified in 1906 and the first Bachelor of Music was offered in 1907, the program was still weak. The music curriculum was structured more as a general education with a focus on music. Brown developed a more formalized and intensive course of study for attaining a degree in music. This meant the quality of music student graduating from the State Normal and Industrial School improved, gradually bolstering the School’s reputation for producing competent music educators.     

Secondly, presenting opportunities for students to gain performance experience and for the public to develop a desire to listen and to discern quality music was needed. This meant performing in recitals. Wade R. Brown performed his first organ recital on Founder’s Day in October of 1912, which included “Grand March” from Verdi’s Aida, the “Prelude” in Bach’s Fugue in C minor, Handel’s The Largo, “In Summer” by Stebbins, Spinney’s “Berceuse,” and Flagler’s “The Old Folks at Home.”  The audience was enthralled by the performance, one citizen reporting, “I dropped in to see what it was like, expecting to stay ten minutes. But I could not leave. That was music. The Normal College has a treasure in Brown.” That same month, Brown organized a 125-voice chorus of students, as well.  For November of 1912, Brown arranged for the Schubert String Quartette from Boston to perform. Within a matter of months of Brown’s arrival in Greensboro, the State Normal and Industrial School, as well as the Greensboro public, were enjoying the benefits of a consistent concert series, captivated by the experience of hearing well-organized student ensembles and professional musicians.  

Auditorium of in the Student Building, 1913

With the first challenge of exposing the student body and the city to quality music conquered, Wade R. Brown transitioned to the next project, fostering the reputation of the State Normal and Industrial College’s Music Department. For this purpose, Brown implemented the statewide High School Contest-Festival in 1919. When the first contest was held in May of 1920, only 13 high school pianists entered.  By the 1939 Festival, 25,000 children competed at district levels with around 5,000 students traveling to the campus to compete in vocal, instrumental, and choral competition. Brown’s High School Music Contest-Festival was the forerunner of the present UNCG Summer Music Camp, which officially began in 1983. With the Contest-Festival an obvious success in promoting the College’s focus on music education, Brown transitioned to the most difficult of the tasks required of his tenure in Greensboro, structuring a culture of music appreciation among students and Greensboro citizens.

Wade R. Brown wrestled with the dilemma of developing a culture of music that was rather complex. For the College to produce exceptional music graduates, students needed to perform to larger audiences, and to experience performances by professional musicians. This would not only enhance student education but also nurture the lives of Greensboro residents. Unfortunately, until Brown arrived, music concerts, as an activity of personal enrichment, were not viewed as a cultural necessity for the area. From performing and arranging recitals, Brown knew that there was a population craving concerts, but there were few accommodations for large audiences, no money to pay decent performers to tour the Greensboro area, and no professional body of musicians to accompany touring performers. This was a daunting task, but Brown tackled it with his usual effectiveness.

 

In terms of performance venues, larger churches were commonly used in the beginning, but there was also a 700 seat auditorium available in the Student Union. Foust’s construction projects (with much urging from Brown) included the Music Building (now the Brown Building), which opened in 1925, as well as the Aycock Auditorium, which opened in 1926. This provided the college with sufficient seating to accommodate crowds that would be attracted by more noted performers.       

The Music Building (now the Wade R. Brown Building), 1927

Wade R. Brown immediately began using his personal connections to attract major music companies to perform in Greensboro. As there was no official symphony orchestra for Greensboro until 1939, State Normal music faculty and students provided accompaniment when possible. Eventually, with the increased hiring of members of the School of Music faculty, a symphony orchestra would be formed. However, in the early stages of the concert series, some of the more complex performances required a professional orchestra, and out of town symphonies were contracted.

Of course, the creation of a professional concert series for Greensboro required funding. Initially, Brown raised money on a per concert basis, which was not the ideal means of establishing a regular schedule for performances. With the opening of Aycock Auditorium guaranteeing a dedicated performance venue, Brown, along with C.G. Harrington and J.D. Wilkins, founded the Greensboro Civic Music Association. The mission of this Association was to support and advance awareness and appreciation of music among Greensboro citizens. Membership fees and donations provided a stable flow of funds for the Association to contract prominent musicians to perform for Greensboro audiences. To say that the venture was a success would be an understatement. By 1937, membership to the Civic Music Association was so popular, there was a waiting list. Additionally, during Wade R. Brown’s tenure as president of the Civic Music Association, Greensboro and the College had the honor of hosting Metropolitan Opera soprano Kristen Flagstad and bass Ezio Pinza, the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Jascha Heifetz.

In 1934, Wade R. Brown stepped down as head of the what had become the School of Music, and formally retired from the faculty in 1936. After twenty-four years of service to the Women’s College (as of 1932) and the Greensboro community, Brown and his wife retired to Florida, spending much of their time travelling abroad to enjoy touring the musical capitals of Europe. Wade R. Brown died in May of 1950, one obituary notice reading, “he is memorialized, too, by the deeper appreciation of the fine things in life which he encouraged and cultivated in the minds and hearts of North Carolinians, both young and old.”

This is part three of a series of posts chronicling the history of the music program at UNCG: Part 1 and Part 2
Sources:
Wade R. Brown, Subject File, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Alumnae News of the State Normal and Industrial College [November 1912], UA43.6.01 Alumnae/Alumni News and UNCG Magazine, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
The Carolinian [1914], UA42.4.03 Pine Needles, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.The Carolinian [February 26, 1937], UA42.4.01 The Carolinian, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College. Junior History of Music Class, 1916, UA111 University Archives Scrapbook Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Trelease, Allen W. 2004. Making North Carolina literate: the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from normal school to metropolitan university. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.
[Music Building (Tate Street)], UA104 Photographic Prints Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
[Students' Building Auditorium], UA104 Photographic Prints Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Naming of the Joseph M. Bryan Building

After operating for ten years in various locations around campus, the School of Business and Economics finally had a permanent home when the School of Business and Economics building opened in January 1980. Construction began on the building project in 1977 and the 123,000 square foot reinforced concrete structure was completed million in November 1979 at a cost of $4.9 million. A unique feature of the building was its computer and television distribution system, which connected all of the classrooms and faculty offices. This design allowed computer generated television programs to be broadcast to all classrooms.

Bryan Building

In July 1987, the UNCG Board of Trustees formally approved the renaming of the School of Business and Economics to the Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics. It was the first time that a professional school had been named for an individual at the university. The honor was given to Mr. Joseph M. Bryan, an extremely successful local businessman, who upon retirement, dedicated his life to philanthropy by financially supporting universities, medical intuitions, and recreational facilities within North Carolina. At the time of the dedication, Mr. Bryan had already given UNCG a $1 million donation in 1983 and would later give another $5 million upon his death in 1995.

Although the business school was named after Mr. Bryan, the building that housed the academic departments was still known as the School of Business and Economics Building. In June 1989, Mr. Bryan pledged a financial gift of $666,000 to UNCG for the creation of a $1 million endowed professorship called the Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Professorship. Shortly after his generous donation, UNCG President William Moran recommended to the UNCG Board of Trustees that the current School of Business and Economics Building be officially renamed the Joseph M. Bryan Building. In September 1989, the motion was passed by the board members and the building officially changed its name. Today, the name of building is commonly shortened to the Bryan Building.

The Outdoor Gymnasium

Outdoor Gymnasium

Physical education was an important part of the curriculum of the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG). The program was expanded in the early 1920s to include gymnastics, outdoor sports, and folk and aesthetic dancing. New space was desperately needed to provide a sheltered area for outdoor sports and additional room for indoor activities. Previous space for indoor gymnastics had included a room in the Administration Building (later named the Foust Building), the Curry Building Chapel, and the basement of Spencer Dormitory.

When Mary Channing Coleman became the director of the physical education department in 1921, she rejuvenated the program and new athletic space was immediately planned. An outdoor gymnasium was affordable and would allow more space for athletics until a larger structure could be built. This new gymnasium was designed by local architect Harry Barton in 1922, at a cost of $9,871.83. It was a large wooden structure, measuring approximately 91 feet long, 51 feet wide and 20 feet to the top of the eaves.



Student Skaters in the Outdoor Gymnasium, 1942

In preparation for inclement weather, the Gymnasium was equipped with canvas “drops” which could completely enclose the building. In addition to physical education classes, the Outdoor Gymnasium became a popular spot for basketball, roller-skating, and rainy day activities. Located west of Shaw Residence Hall, the outdoor gymnasium was completed three years before the construction of the Rosenthal Gymnasium.  It would soon be overshadowed by the new gymnasium which was hailed as one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the country. Rosenthal Gymnasium included a swimming pool, an indoor golf room, a mirrored dance studio, and a bowling alley. The outdoor space was used during bad weather and for overflow physical education activities until 1964 when it was torn down.

Summer Studies at the Shore

On June 15, 1931, Archie D. Shaftesbury, Associate Professor of Zoology at the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG) wrote Mary Taylor Moor, the school's registrar, regarding a proposal "to conduct a three weeks summer term in zoology at Beaufort during this and succeeding summers." Shaftesbury emphasized that "it is our intention to reserve this work for certain selected students, rather than to open the course to classes of any considerable size." He asked Moore to quickly take the proposal to the "college credit committee" to ensure that students planning to participate that summer would be eligible for course credit.

Dr. Archie Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury's work to bring students to Beaufort for marine zoology study continued to develop, and, in 1934, student members of the school's Zoology Field Club actively joined in by writing their alumni members for support "in the establishment of our marine laboratory on the North Carolina coast." They asked that each former member pledge $10 ($5 in 1935 and $5 in 1936) to support the development of these research facilities. These efforts paid off. In 1935, work began on the construction of the "Carolina Marine Laboratory" in Beaufort. Previously, students had made use of local high school classrooms as well as U.S. Bureau of Fisheries laboratories and boats for their summer studies. 

Beaufort continued to grow as a hub of marine research. In addition to the active U.S. Bureau of Fisheries facility and the newly-constructed NCCW laboratory, Duke University established a presence in the town in 1937 with the purchase of 11.5 acres to house a third research facility.

In 1938, the NCCW facility in Beaufort featured a course in Invertebrate Zoology, a class "designed for seriously minded advanced college students, high school teachers, and others who may be interested professionally in biology." An information pamphlet sent to prospective applicants to the course noted that "while the work is not a vacation in the ordinary sense, the experiences offer a pleasant change from the confines of the classroom and laboratory together with an unusual opportunity for observation and study." Classes were held between June 13 and July 9.

Biology students studying  at Beaufort, ca. 1940

That same summer, NCCW's presence in Beaufort expanded beyond marine research as the art department established a 26-day "summer colony" in the town. Gregory D. Ivy, head of the art department and manager of the "colony," proclaimed the project to be an "experiment." The academic work centered around coursework in "advanced landscape painting," which focused on "the theories and methods used by the post-impressionist cubists, and surrealists." It appears that this was indeed a limited experience, as the bulk of the NCCW use of Beaufort focused solely on marine biology.   

The 1961-1962 course bulletin contains the last direct reference to the Invertebrate Zoology course conducted at the Beaufort facility by Shaftesbury (who had become professor emeritus in 1959). Current UNCG students, however, can study marine science in Beaufort as part of a 20-college Marine Science Education Consortium that send students to the Duke Marine Lab for a semester or for summer session.

Lucille Pugh: Woman Lawyer

On April 28, 1899, Lucille Pugh of Lewiston in Eastern North Carolina wrote Charles Duncan McIver to petition for admittance to the State Normal and Industrial School. Pugh was the daughter of a cotton farmer, and, like many students who wrote McIver, her family was not able to cover the cost of tuition, room, and board. She wrote, "I am very anxious to attend the Normal College this fall, but am not able to defray my expenses." She asks if there are any jobs available at the school that she can perform, adding that she is "willing to do anything to get an education." After learning more about her education up that point, McIver offered her a position in the "laundry department." While Pugh admitted that she had "never ironed any," she was willing and able to do the work, as it meant she could further her education.

Sixteen-year-old Pugh arrived at State Normal in October 1899 to begin her studies. But her financial woes continued. In November 1899, she borrowed money from McIver to travel home, but was unable to repay it upon her return. Prior to each successive semester, she writes McIver to petition for a campus job, fearing that a lack of funds would prohibit her from returning to State Normal. In the Summer of 1901, she went so far as to move to Atlantic City, NJ, to take a job as a cashier in hopes of raising enough money to cover her college expenses for the following year. That job, combined with a gift from an undisclosed source, gave her enough money to return to State Normal in the fall. But by January, she had no more money and her father, who was ill with "yellow chills" (likely malaria), was unable to harvest a crop and could not pay her school bills. She was forced to leave the school in early 1902.

Sadly, Pugh's story was not an uncommon one. Many State Normal students were forced to withdraw before completing the program due to the financial strain on their families. What Pugh did after leaving State Normal, however, sets her in a class by herself. She traveled to New York to visit an aunt, and, after working for a while as a stenographer, she enrolled in night classes at the New York University Law School. In 1908, she graduated and was admitted to the New York Bar Association at the age of 24.

Only four years later, Pugh became the first female lawyer in the country to defend an accused murderer when she was assigned the case of LeRoy Poindexter, an African American man accused of killing a white man over a game of craps. In her defense of Poindexter, Pugh argued that his 14th Amendment rights had been violated because neither the grand jury that indicted him nor the special jury impaneled to try him had any African American members. This was a common situation in most New York courts, but Pugh's argument against it was extremely progressive. In fact, it wasn't until 23 years later that an American court saw a reversal of a conviction of black man for murder on the grounds that African American were excluded from jury service. Ultimately, Pugh's arguments proved only partially successful. Poindexter was convicted not of murder but of manslaughter in the 2nd degree -- the least of the charges against him. He was sentenced to seven and a half to 15 years in the state penitentiary.

"Miss Pugh as she appears for social occasions," 1925

Her criminal and civil casework continued, but in 1917, her personal life became front page news when she filed for divorce from Ray E. Pierce, her husband of nine years. While they had married in 1908, they lived apart and, because she worked using her maiden name, few people knew Pugh had ever been married. In 1915, however, she had actually written an article in the New York Times in opposition to the commonly-held belief that married women were required to use their husband's last name in any legal documents. She continued this argument in 1920, stating that "women's efforts to retain their names after marriage are the first faint whirring of the clock of time about to strike freedom for women."

Even more scandalous than her marriage and divorce was her choice of attire in court. A November 1912 headline referred to her as a "girl lawyer in male attire in the court." The article described her as dressed in "conventional man's attire, except the trousers ... On her head she wore a natty derby. A standing collar with a four-in-hand tie showed above her short, mannish coat." Pugh herself stated, "I believe that the business woman should do away with the air of special privilege, which ultra-feminine clothes give a woman, when she is acting in fair competition with men. Her clothes should be impersonal. She should not use her sex to create an advantage in a business situation, for she is then employing unfair tactics."

"Miss Pugh as attired for business," 1925

Pugh continued her legal work and advocacy for women's rights for decades. In 1925, she represented Lillian N. Duke, recently-deceased tobacco magnate J.B. Duke's first wife, in her efforts to claim some of Duke family fortune. In 1931, she was a leader in the effort to allow women access to the Bar Association of New York City's building. And in 1937, she was fined $250 and sentenced to ten days in "the workhouse" for contempt of court after charging a municipal court justice with malice and bias when he ruled against her request for a mistrial. A New York Times article quotes her as claiming the judge decided against her because she "licked [him] in the Municipal Court fifteen years ago." Later, her sentence was reduced to a censure only, after it was determined that the judge himself "provoked the remarks which he regarded as contemptuous."

On May 13, 1960, Lucille Pugh died in New York. Even then, her reputation preceded her, as her obituary stated: "Lucille Pugh, 75, a mannishly attired, pipe-smoking woman lawyer who gained national attention through her handling of both criminal and civil cases, died Thursday."

Dixie Lee Bryant and Scientific Study at State Normal

When the doors opened for the first students at State Normal in October 1892, students were able to follow three general courses of study: domestic science, business, and "normal" (teacher education). The "normal" program extended beyond pedagogy studies to include the arts, humanities, and sciences.

Dixie Lee Bryant

Leading the science department was Dixie Lee Bryant, a charter member of the State Normal faculty. Bryant arrived at State Normal with an impressive academic background. Born in 1862 in Louisville, Kentucky, her family moved to Columbia, Tennessee, in 1886, and Bryant enrolled in the Columbia Female Institute. But she wished to complete a full course of college studies, particularly in the sciences. Yet, Bryant found that no Southern universities at the time admitted women to their science programs. As a result, in 1887, she applied and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. In 1891, she graduated with a bachelor of science degree.

At State Normal, Bryant's course load spanned the sciences, ranging from courses in botany to geology to chemistry. In her initial year at State Normal, she taught six classes:

• Physical Geography
• Systemic and Structural Botany of Flowering Plants
• General Chemistry
• Physics
• Zoology, and
• Geology

In addition to this wide range of classes, she tutored many of the early students who arrived at State Normal with little to no prior education in the sciences.

Bryant also established the first scientific laboratories on campus (purported to be the first "chemical laboratory" for use by women in the state of North Carolina). In her unpublished reminiscences of her time at State Normal, Bryant wrote about building the laboratory spaces in the Main Building (now Foust). She was allotted only a small purchasing budget for the initial lab development. With that money, she was able to  purchase a few microscopes for the lab, but most of the specimens that the students studied under those microscopes were from Bryant's personal research collection. As stated in the 1892-1893 Annual Catalogue, "the department of Natural Sciences is equipped with laboratories and specimens which will be made better and more complete as the funds of the Institution will allow."

In her botany classes, Bryant and her students studied specimens, but they also went out in search of local plant life for study. As Bryant noted in her unpublished reminiscences, "the girls were delighted with the field work and made good herbaria" [collections of preserved plant specimens]. Bryant also taught the students the art of taking both field and laboratory notes.

Bryant (standing center) and students in the school's laboratory, 1896

In addition to her work at State Normal, Bryant was a member of the faculty at the 1894 Summer School for Teachers and Students, held in Chapel Hill. There, Bryant was tasked with instruction in physical geography and botany.

Bryant led the science department at State Normal until 1901, when she took a leave of absence to study at the Bavarian University of Erlangen in Germany, where she earned her PhD in geology and graduated magna cum laude in 1904 (the first woman to receive this degree from Erlangen). When she returned to State Normal for the 1904-1905 school year, she was the first faculty member to hold a PhD.

Her advanced degree, in turn, proved somewhat divisive on her return. In spite of being the only faculty member with a doctorate, Bryant received no boost in her salary -- a salary which already lagged behind many of her more recently hired colleagues. In 1905, she left to teach in the public schools of Chicago. She remained in Chicago until 1931 when she retired retired to Asheville, NC.

Personal Accounts of Charles D. McIver

The general facts of the life of Charles Duncan McIver, the founding president of State Normal, are well documented. These include his birth on September 27, 1860, his strong commitment to education, the founding of the State Normal and Industrial School in 1891, and his untimely death at the age of 45. Often overlooked, however, are the details of his charismatic personality which contributed to his success as the first president of the school. Personal accounts by students and faculty, reveal that McIver was extremely well liked and left a lasting legacy on the campus.

McIver (left) and Edwin Alderman

When describing his physical appearance, it was noted that McIver was a rather thick, stocky man with short legs, standing just under six foot tall and weighing roughly 200 pounds. His eyes were gray and he had fair colored skin with thinning light brown hair. By some accounts, he was said to always looked like he was in a hurry with a determined look on his face, leaving no doubt about where he was going.

One of the reasons that McIver was such a portly person was his insatiable appetite for rich food. It was well known amongst the students and faculty that he loved to eat and particularly enjoyed meal time. It was said that he knew all of the head waiters in all of the good hotel restaurants across North Carolina. One of his favorite foods was watermelon which he sometimes bought by the wagon load and kept readily available to eat.

Along with his eating habits, McIver was known to be a humorous and jovial fellow with an uncanny talent for telling a joke and entertaining crowds with his speeches. This pleasant personality would also be evident in his commitment to connect with students and faculty at the school. Many recall that McIver had an exemplary ability to remember people’s names, faces, and past events. To aid his memory, he often carried a notepad with a list of all of the students. McIver would make an effort throughout the year to meet every student to learn their name and more about them. His biggest worry was not knowing each student well enough to talk with their parents.

Despite his typically friendly nature, McIver could also exemplify a very stern and strict demeanor, especially regarding discipline and order among the students. One student described her experience of being summoned to McIver’s office for taking an extra day away from school over the holiday break. She felt like she had her “heart in her throat” as she was "reprimanded severally for disobeying rules" despite her pleas. McIver ordered her to write fifty copies of the "contract" they were required to sign upon entering the college as punishment.