Document text
ohea
Interview with 41"1"S• G. J. .;Unn, 1619 Tyler, luesday, June 28, 1938.
January 1, 1904, Ts. Nunn came with her husbnni the late .dr. G. J.
Aiunn, pions)r educator of the 2nnhnndle, to Amarillo, where they set
up houseketping at 701 •'ackson, in the building which was formerly the
first -ethJdist in the town and in which the first religious services
for other denominations were held. rdnoe .its use an a church building,
the house had been remodeled and c averted into an apartment house.
Lrs. 1=unn still recalls with a shudder the "grnnite" wallpaper with which
every ram in the building was decorate L.
-41 Jcnary, shortly after their arrival, Dr, iiunn establtiihed the
Amarillo Academy in his home. f'Audents from out of town rooLed and
boarded in the elMe building. In the simmer of 1904 he bought a down..
town building which he moved -to the academy grouns and used for school
purposes. 6o tn the purchase of another building was required by the
growing student body an old paint shop which live move to a new
location at 70 onr street. This bu lding was utilized as -a dormi-
tory for boys attending the academy and was also occupied by the
primary department of the school. noys took their meals the liunn
home at 701 'ac,cson, where girl stlidents stayed. 241,er the academy was
closed, the builiing at 701 was sold to a L. '4erbst and onverted into
romling house whioh later burned.
haa
Junn, Whold,-Ibbled in ren1 estate more or less before onto: jug
the prafe Jona' field, carA.ed on this business intermit ently while
he was teaching in Amarillo, finally iving up school work to devote
his entir time to the -real estate enterprise, whi h was uore profitable
than the educational field. lage any teacher and they will tall
you the s-Ime).
Unn 2
During the first tens of the nondemy, Jr. 1;unn and his wife.
did the teaching, :Lrs. Nunn ta;.cing charge of the music and helping with
the inte.imeliate work, v.hile her husband taught the highe subjects.
The fol owilits year B. „uig1,7, who died in Lay, 1935, was added to
the faculty. he late --T. -kavid Fly also3j taught at one time in
the old academy.
:irst &raOunting class was composed of Lorris and li-ary .rowning,
erring's sister, and otLers. n of kro. :,:unt.'s first pupils,
whom she taught spelling and gramar or arithmetic. was Dascom Time:me.
Liss Laura Buchanan of the academy's a t department did thicovers
of 77ollend's ragazine for several years.
As Lula Jrr)Urs. unn crane to teach in the old Go;dnight College
in 1901, ta Ana ':..harA of the music department a year before -or. 1;unn,
who was the!: president o: 4.rolytechnic College in Port .-,,orth, came to
assume the )residency of the college at Go dnight.
--Jr. LloIlhany, to whom Jr. 4eunn had ;one to school and under whom
..;unn nd studied as a young girl of fourteen in 3tephenvi11s,
was the founder of Goednit College and persuaded his for pupil to
come to the young plains institution. In 1902 Jr. liuni; too.: charge of
the college established bf the philuo;thropic Colonel Goodnight and his
wife, who was a school teache..- before she uarri,ed the colonel.
'n the summer of 1903 iss orr and Dr, iiunn were married, coining to
Amarillo in January of the followin,. y ars
'4he Goodni&ht College at the time was still housed in the old
church building. The boys' .o-rtnitory had two stories, facetiously no
as the °Up;eer and over Dives".
Jlarendon College was evidently older than the Gocdnight institu-
tion, although tl.e latter is often :-poken of as being the oldeat college
ii2-141.44414ket
Nunn 3
in the ,7-Jih%ndle, because, as Lrs. Nunn recalls, the buildings of the
former wer of older, substantial brick construction.
.;onte.,3orrt ir;q; of the j'anhardle ware the Amarillo, Clarenkien,
0oa'alight, .1.1reford *and Canadain ncwlemies, with perhaps a few years
differam,J in their begin,Ang and ending. 'he old Alitsit home in
Canadian was formerly one of the Cantviian Aoademy -eAtildings. Addison
ilaadolph Clark was iiresiden-t of the Hereford College, as LTS. "unn
re(;q1ls.
4he Amarillo Acailmy had students however, from be h ilereford
and lodnight,* liAtieos, therefore the oolleges at those places must
before the opening
hnve been discontinued -or established rider tho cloning of the Amarillo
institution.
The Lowry-..../hillips AcleMy was establishe in the buildino which is
now ()couple by the, Childran's Eeme after the Nunn college closed.
Ihe De 7ourcy .;irls, who had cone to schoo to hi1iips in 711ue Lountain,
Lisseuri, ha' n kinderivrten in Amarillo, peliapv in connection with the
-wowry.h.illips school, after the .igunns came to Amarillo. lure."=i;stel'
Scutt, te ach- in the Amarillo schools, was one of the Aje CAIrcy sisters.
"T. Bertha ,bac0regor of 1004 Harrison aloe ta.ght a kindergarten
about this time.
J.n the course of hi ,o real estate operations, r, Nunn, perhaps as
early as 1904, aequired prit of the farm which waolater developed as
i:kigefield addition to Amarillo. Later, the whole of the farm was added
to his lollinge. .aarly in the devA.opment of thinproperty, Teo .,unn
brought a DPllas realtor to Amarillo to put the acreage on the mai'tcet,
eevefal lots being sold in it at the time, many of which were paid for
Others reverting to the owner, Dr. Nunn. About 1926 in the expansion
days of the oil beam, the addition was fonnally opened, streets laid
4
:d.ff, lots Jut 119 for s -,1e, pnd the project promote to a greats extent
th-11 in the first venture. 'he addition was lammed by the fLgent
who pr7moted the A.rst rzle 1 ts in the addition, perhfq4: because
the lend rld been farm field on the edge of the town.
Jun remembe.t or of the old buildings of early Amarillo
which are still doing service in the town. The V. D. Sanborn home,
formerly a* the block now occupied by the Lunicipal Auditorium, now
stands !t 1311 adison, in the name condition except for n coat of
pfAnt, gren nd white to replace the N ail killoir original yellow.
the conch house in Which Sanborn zept hie tally -ho stil.stands, CO
verted into
'erns
a dwelling. r.e.he old office bui ding in Which, he worked
also waved malw to -n unoertnit, location, but both coach house
and of ice rre parts of other buildings in Amarillo today.
lho fi2st Ara illo iub ic chool building, the former frame courthouse
which sr.v3dCounty before the firet briok .1ructure was erected,
Ftqrds it the corn of :inth fnci Van 71uren streets, the old schools.
house led to rtnd ?rmed n.thing cf its forme shne nnd ap sere
-ice in "out two of the tall ,old-fashioned fchoolroom windows
t0i identLfy it.
I;urla recalls an intereFting incident in connection with
her association with the late Colonel arias Goodniht. jnce when
she was sh;wing visit rs from lit of tlw state over the ôo
:.;01iniht ranch in the .lo Duro Canyon, she drove a new cur with,
great tre;?idation in tho wa:e of the irascible old colonel, who lia4
led the wy rIcrsr, the trn.A.teP :)ostures with a curt, "Turn left" or
"urn right*, never loong bac to see if the inexoerionced driver
could follw where his horse went. VOwo a -oad orly wide enough to
permit the careful pass!lge of vehicle, s. Nun drove her oar
gunn
5
down n deo ivity t the bottom of Whioh was n candy nrroyo, Where tho
motor im adintaly strale4 in the quickvand, refusing to buge nny farther.
.che ijti.nt old cattlemIll role bno7: te see uto.t det:iring
her, e:,-c-_,Aming, "Any g od drive: cduld h/ve lan,le it. aly
didn't y,u give it .43 itin?' Yhe/sing from the aLthma which wax aggra.
v/Aed by his tv:zaG,Jeration, he nit over nnd,sat down QD n nearby hillside,
from .hioh his *tertriou/: bra thing eJuld be in1u11y hen.rd by the
000u,nntr of tha car, who w3nt in cenroh of tha tlien*ei nenreet te1e.
phone to o-.11 ;o1,e)na :1 dome after the stalled automobile, uhioh "re.
-unn rf o 3ite ntt3mpt to wArio/Ae trAta th the Uitii4Leitte.
traa harous unnd. ,Jate, hr. Nunn, who viRc a sinoere friend of the
old dlaihLi../an, jo:ed with r;oodnight about 110 genre he gnva her with
stalled onv, his aethma, .ahidhChe fenred Lo*ld be the de/th of him
Iny minlate and his gruffnecee