A Decade of Growth, Prosperity

Albany College of Pharmacy in the 1920s

The 1920s were a landmark decade in the history of Albany College of Pharmacy as, in 1927, the school finally gained a brand new home on New Scotland Avenue . At the same time, the Graduate in Pharmacy course was expanded to three years and many extracurricular activities were added for students, making ACP seem like a "real" college for the first time.

The decade got off to an auspicious start with the graduation of future dean Francis J. O'Brien in 1920. That graduation ceremony included four flower girls and a male cheerleader, Gardner Davis '21, who led the crowd in a series of rousing cheers to their new alma mater. The ACP Alumni Association, which took part in the festivities, urged every alumnus to contribute and raise funds to erect a new building, and convened a Tablet Committee to raise funds for a memorial to honor those alumni who had died in World War I.                                                The New Scotland cornerstone is placed, 1926.

O'Brien, who was "quiet but well-liked by his classmates" according to his friend Ray Boles '20, was hired on as an Instructor in Pharmacy and Mathematics immediately after graduation. In the 1920-21 academic year, he began to make the transition from popular student to popular teacher and, by 1925, had been promoted to Assistant Professor.

The College celebrated its 40 th anniversary in 1921 and ceremonies were held at Chancellor's Hall in the State Education Building . Two of the original founders of ACP were still alive to mark the big event; Willis Gaylord Tucker, who had stepped down as dean in 1918 when Dean William Mansfield arrived, and Gustavus Michaelis, who still served on the Board of Trustees. Alumni and fraternal organizations celebrated in style with dances at local hotels.

By 1922, ACP boasted three fraternities and a sorority, Lambda Kappa Sigma. After a brief hiatus during and after World War I, the Alpha chapter of the Epsilon Phi fraternity had been rejuvenated that year by Frank A. Squires '22, who joined the College as a faculty member after graduation and continued to be a guiding force for the frat.

The Beta chapter of Rho Pi Phi Fraternity (known as "Ropes") was founded at ACP in 1921 by a

 Lambda Kappa Sigma, 1923.                             "progressive group of Jewish students." Brothers

                                                                            enjoyed "smokers," theater parties, sleigh rides and a pledge dance held at Temple Beth Emeth, as well as an Annual Dinner Dance at the new Hotel Hampton. The first Beta Chapter House opened in 1929 at 185 Warren St. with 13 "fraters" in residence.

Kappa Psi moved into its own chapter house at 50 Jay St. in 1924 and hosted social functions both at the house and the Albany Yacht Club, where brothers and their guests danced to the tunes of Eddie's Melody Boys in one of the oldest yacht clubs in the nation.

Students without frat housing lodged off-campus in boarding houses such as the Marcona, which advertised "furnished rooms and excellent board" for about $8 a week. Many dined at local establishments like the Hudson Restaurant, where they could get the "best 40-cent dinner in town," or the Oriental Occidental Restaurant on State Street , which offered American or Chinese entrees for 75 cents.

All of the fraternities, as well as the so-called "neutrals" who did not belong to any fraternal groups, competed in the Inter-Class Field Meet when it debuted in 1921. This annual competition among the classes featured track events at Ridgefield Park , baseball at Beverwyck Park and the prize of a silver cup to the class earning the highest point score. In the summer of 2005, Dan Spadaro '23 still remembered his win in the 440-yard relay, but the festivities also included more comical competitions including a three-legged and fat men's race.

Bowling and basketball already were established at the school, but by 1922 they had been organized into "real teams" with scheduled games and players specially selected to represent the College. Lacking a gymnasium in the Eagle Street building, the basketball team played in Albany High's gym under a coach from the State College . Outfitted in maroon and white, they competed against Albany Law, the YMCA and Rensselaer High. The bowling teams, managed by Professor Seneca Smith, used the YMCA lanes                           The ACP basketball team, 1927.

until that building burned down in 1925, when they

made the switch to the Palm Garden Alleys.

The number of students at the College continued to climb each year, swelled by the burgeoning ranks of veterans heading back to ACP to complete their studies after the war. New enrollees climbed from 20 for the Class of 1919 to 48 in 1920 and 58 in 1921. Registration had to be closed at 64 students in July 1922 as there was not enough room for all the applicants.

After just 13 years, the College already was outgrowing its second home in the old Humane Society building on Eagle Street .

With eager students waiting in the wings, ACP could afford to raise its entrance requirements. Students entering in September 1923 for a Ph.G. degree needed to have three years of high school or 54 Regents counts, while those earning a Graduate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree (Ph.C.) needed four years. Tuition was raised from $200 to $230-$250 a year, with books averaging $45 for the first year alone.

As the student body grew, so did the number of non-academic activities. Physical Training, now compulsory under New York State law, was held at the YMCA under director Milton Howard and included calisthenics, jumping, chinning and running. The activities fee of $27 per year included both physical education and Y privileges, including gym shoes, towels and bowling; a yearbook; the junior prom and other dances and free admission to basketball games.

The Orchestra and Glee Club was founded in 1923 and featured violins and a cello, saxophone, piano, drum and three banjos. Through the efforts of Professor O'Brien and Dean Mansfield, the group made its debut at the ACP Christmas party that December. The concert was broadcast "for the benefit of the nation" via WGY in Schenectady and WHAZ in Troy , stations on the air in the very early days of radio.

The orchestra, billed as the "last word in syncopation and jazz," split off from the singing Glee Club the following year, with the Orchestra continuing to entertain at dances under the direction of Professor Smith. They played at the Commencement Prom, held at Vicentian Hall "on the line of the Pine Hills trolley cars," and ACP revelers tripped the light fantastic to renditions of the Charleston and Black Bottom that were all the rage.

By 1925 a swim team was established at ACP as many young men were eager to emulate Olympic gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller, who had broken three swimming

 Milton Howard, 1926.                     records in the 1924 Olympics. The team practiced at Public

                                                        Bath Number 3 every Wednesday evening and grew until members numbered in the twenties. Life Saving classes were offered as well. As the yearbook noted, "No Weissmullers have been produced as yet, but time will tell."

A Student Government was inaugurated that year as well, consisting of a General Committee and two Executive Committees representing the juniors and seniors, still the only two classes at ACP. Chief among their duties was coordination of the Senior Hop and the Junior Prom.

After a hiatus of a few years, the yearbook, formerly known as The Alembic , was revived in 1923 as The Pharmakon. Renamed The Alembic Pharmakon the following year, its pages are filled with candid photos of young women with bobbed     The ACP Orchestra, 1927.

hair, cloche hats, raccoon coats and short "flapper"

dresses. Women students, who had gained the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, were busy showing off their new-found freedom and increasingly involved in the life and governance of the College.

Meanwhile, another feature of the "Jazz Age," Prohibition, ground on throughout the decade. It has been estimated that sales of "medicinal" alcohol prescribed by doctors and hospitals doubled in the United States between 1923 and 1931. In Albany , speakeasies proliferated and many drugstores clandestinely sold liquor.

Harold McBride '24 noted in the yearbook that "because the laws of the U.S have placed upon the pharmacist the responsibility of dispensing alcoholic liquors upon physician's prescriptions . the exalted position of the druggist has taken a great slump and a great stench has arisen from the profession."

He went on to note that "pharmaceutical associations are waging a strenuous campaign to place the profession back on its pre-Prohibition plane" and that "many colleges of pharmacy require their students to take a pledge to take a stand against alcohol."

In spite of the controversy, or perhaps because of it, students continued to flock to the College and in September 1925, ACP once again had to limit its class size due to cramped quarters. According to the 1926 Catalog, the demand for licensed and junior pharmacists far exceeded the supply and larger salaries were being paid.

The "outlook [has] never [been] brighter," proclaimed the College.

Though ACP was able to lease space at St. Sophia Hall on Lancaster Street for overflow classes, it was clear that this stopgap measure would not hold for long. Students would "miss the lecture halls, laboratories, corridors and smoking room" on Eagle Street , but they were clearly ready for a change.

By November 1925, at the request of Sen. William T. Byrne and Charles Gibson, President of the College's Board of Trustees, the Albany County supervisors deeded to ACP a plot of land on New Scotland Avenue for the construction of a new College of Pharmacy . The land, located across from Albany Hospital , originally had been the site of a farm for the Albany Alms House.

The new building, designed by architect Alex Selkirk, was planned as three stories of tapestry brick and limestone for a cost of $300,000, and

 New Scotland construction site, 1925.            would accommodate 500 students. Ground was

                                                                            broken May 13, 1926, with the Honorable John Boyd Thacher, Mayor of Albany, presiding. The cornerstone was set by Dr. Charles H. Johnson, Grand Senior Warden of the State Grand Lodge of Masons.

Members of the Class of 1926 resolved that each graduate would pay the sum of $100 to the Permanent Equipment fund to be used for the facility.

Occupied for the first time in the fall of 1927, the new edifice included labs for Pharmacy, Botany and Materia Medica, Pharmacognosy, Histology and Chemistry; a model pharmacy; an auditorium for 500; a photography room; a library; a gym, complete with showers and locker room; an alumni room and a "co-ed's" lounge, furnished with stylish wicker furniture.

The building wasn't the only new thing that debuted that fall.                                                               Architect Alex Selkirk's rendering, 1925.

A three-year College course of study for the Ph.G. degree kicked off in 1927 with students attending classes for 32 weeks, 39 hours per week each year, for a total of 2,656 hours of instruction. Students completed 1,120 hours of lab work in Botany and Materia Medica, Chemistry and Pharmacy. Those completing university coursework for the Ph.C. degree also took courses in German, Civics, English, Math and Bacteriology. O'Brien was among the early graduates of the revamped program, earning his Ph.C. in 1929.

Students also got a chance to practice for their new professions in the Model Pharmacy that was incorporated into the College. The "Union Pharmacy" was equipped with all of the latest features and included a soda fountain, cash registers and a complete line of drugs and chemicals.

By 1929, students were able to take a course in Operative Pharmacy Theory and had opportunities to learn about soda fountain maintenance, salesmanship, window displays and arrangement of stock under the guidance of the Professor of Economics. Each graduate wanted to be, as the

 Materia Medica Lab, 1927.                              yearbook put it, "Mr. Modern druggist, with a well-lit

                                                                            store, appealing and attractive window displays, an elaborate display of merchandise and sanitary white coats bedecking his clerks; all symbolic of modern needs."

With new facilities for meetings and practices, extracurricular activities continued to be added each year and by 1928 included a debating society, a drama club, a girls' chorus and a college newspaper, the Mortar and Pestle, published biweekly under the supervision of Professor Edwin Hutman.

The spacious auditorium was used for screenings of "moving pictures" filmed during ACP's annual field day and Commencement, and for "radio parties," which capitalized on the craze that swept the nation beginning with the first public radio broadcast in the early '20s. The Debate Club took to the stage to spar over topics such as co-education, fraternities and capital punishment, with the first inter-class debate taking sides on "Active Military Intervention by the U.S. in Nicaragua."

                                                                                             The new auditorium, 1927.

Sports blossomed at the College as well, with "an

athletic council, coaches and adequate facilities as much a part of the new institution as microscopes and test tubes." The baseball team had snappy new uniforms and a cross-country team was organized in 1928. Tennis matches took place at Washington and Ridgefield Parks or on Professor Smith's private court, "one of the best in the Capital District."

The Rifle Team met every Thursday afternoon at Troop B Armory, just down New Scotland Avenue . Under the eagle eye of Professor Frank Squires, a team of 22 young men competed against RPI and Albany High, among others. Quoits, a game similar to horseshoes that was popular in America during the mid-'20s, also was enjoyed at ACP.

Fans went even farther afield to cheer on the ACP teams. In 1928, a busload of students sprang for $5 tickets and headed to New York City to watch the basketball team beat Columbia University , celebrating afterwards with dinner at Beefsteak Charlies's. The Mortar and Pestle even printed pre-approved cheers for the event, including the stirring "Red, White, Pharmacy, Fight."

Both faculty and students took advantage of other off-campus opportunities as well. ACP delegates, along with several alumni, attended the annual meetings of the New York Pharmaceutical Association at locales such as the Alexandria Bay Hotel in the Thousand Islands and the United States Hotel in Saratoga Springs.

 ACP model pharmacy, 1929.                              But just when things seemed to be taking off for

                                                                             the College and its graduates, fate intervened in the form of the Stock Market Crash in October 1929. The Great Depression that followed had serious repercussions for student enrollment as well as for job availability and wages for pharmacists throughout the nation as ACP entered its next decade.