Proposed Removal of the National Normal University to Columbus-Will There Be a New Town Called Holbrook?
Columbus, October 18. For some time past it has been known to Columbus people that there are very important business transactions taking place between President Holbrook and the Columbus board of trade. Readers of the Gazette will be Interested.
Very little concerning this transaction has been made public and less still to known to any degree of certainty. But that the removal of the university to this city is to take place some time soon is no longer a matter of doubt to the people of Columbus.
The final details have not yet been arranged and of course there may yet occur some break in the carrying out of the scheme. Yet this is hardly expected, for the board of trade is always ready to take hold of anything that may further the progress of their city, and no less anxious is Holbrook to grab at anything that may bring him fame and money.
A syndicate has already been formed to buy a tract of land a few miles west of Columbus, where an addition is to be laid out and named Holbrook.
This addition is to be divided into lots and these lots are to be put on sale, with the exception of a tract large enough for a campus and other necessary purposes of the university, which is to be presented to President Holbrook.
The profits from this sale above purchase price is to be donated for use in erecting mammoth buildings suitable for the purposes of the normal school. The addition is to be far enough outside the city to release it from municipal taxation.
President Holbrook has held several conferences with the board of trade, but of course they have been kept secret and not much is yet known to the public.
Such a removal would be of great advantage to the university from a financial point of view, but whether it would be of any permanent value is to be questioned, especially when it increases its distance from the south, whence is drawn the greatest part of its attendance.
But the removal of the normal school has long been talked of by Holbrook, and still it remains where it was founded, and whether this is another sudden flight of the imagination remains to be seen.