Volume 14 , Issue 30

NW Okie's Corner

Does anyone out there know when most of the trees were planted on the grounds of the "Castle On the Hill" (also known as Northwestern Normal School), in Alva, Woods county, Oklahoma Territory?

The photo on the left is a photograph that my grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick McGill had saved in her photo collections. It was taken 22 January 1901. I left it as a large image file so that others with high broadband connections might zoom in and see what relatives they could find among the Northwestern Normal School group of January 1901.

I believe that both grandma Constance Estella (Warwick) McGill and grandpa Wm. Jacob McGill and a few other McGill's are in this photo. Behind the group posed in front of "Castle on the Hill," I counted at least eight young trees. See if you count any more.

We know that the history of the Castle on the Hill (Northwestern Normal School), in Alva, Woods County, Oklahoma Territory, was dedicated on March 9, 1900 by the president of the school, James Ament. The cost of the structure was about $100,000. It began as a vision in 1895 when a bill was introduced in 1895 for the purpose of establishing a Normal School in the growing rural city of Alva and the county of "M" (Woods) county, in the Northwest corner of Oklahoma Territory.

The committee appointed to to sell the idea of this normal school were: S. L. Johnson, chairman; H. L. Ross, secretary; W. F. Hatfield, editor of the Alva Pioneer; James Kelley, editor of the Alva Republica; C. C. Hudson, editor of the Alva Review; A. H. Andrews, city attorney, and Jesse J. Todd.

We also know that the "Castle on the Hill" burned to a shell of itself March, 1935, and was rebuilt. The Castle stood where the Jesse Dunn building stands today, looking North down College Avenue (6th Street) on Oklahoma Blvd. To read more information and view old "Ranger" albums of Northwestern State Normal School CLICK this LINK.

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