14 THE WEBER COLLEGE GENERAL INFORMATION HISTORICAL In the year 1888 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints inaugurated a more extended program of Church school education. Inasmuch as religious training was practically excluded from the public schools, letters were sent to the Presidencies of the various Stakes urging them to establish academies in order to foster religious training and moral development among the young. In conformity with the import of the letter addressed to Lewis W. Shurtliff, President of the Weber Stake, the brethren of the priesthood were called together to consider the matter. They decided to organize a board of education and to establish the Weber Stake Academy. Accordingly, the Board was organized with the three members of the Stake Presidency, Lewis W. Shurtliff, Charles F. Middleton, Nils C. Flygare; one member of the High Council, Joseph Stanford; three bishops, Robert McQuarrie of the Second Ward, Thomas J. Stevens of the Fifth Ward, David McKay of the Huntsville Ward, and Prof. Louis F. Moench, who had gained considerable reputation as a teacher in Weber County and in Ogden City, and who was to become the first principal of the school. Through the effort of this Board the Weber Stake Academy was established. Temporary quarters were secured in the Second Ward meeting house, Ogden, where the school was formally opened January 7, 1889, with Louis F. Moench as principal. The attendance, though small at first, increased so rapidly that it was found necessary to secure better accommodations. Plans were made for the erection of a perma- THE WEBER COLLEGE 15 nent building on Jefferson avenue. In the meantime the school was moved from the Second Ward to the Ogden Tabernacle, and later to the Fifth Ward Institute. The first building on the present site was ready for use in the fall of 1892, and the school moved to its present home. Since that time it has been necessary to enlarge the building. In 1907 a new building, built on the west of the original building, was completed and ready for use when the school opened in the fall. In 1917 it was again necessary to provide temporary quarters for some of the classes. For this purpose the Grix residence, a large two-story brick building, was remodeled and converted into class rooms. The School of Music and some other classes were moved to that building. At the present time a magnificent gymnasium is in course of construction. The name of the school has been changed a number of times to express the periods of growth. When the old Weber Stake was divided into three new stakes, the name of the school was changed from the Weber Stake Academy to Weber Academy. After the school took up college work and began to specialize on the training of teachers, the name of the school was changed, to express this new function, to the Weber Normal College. The change of the name was made in 1918. However, the school had been giving college work for two years before this. With the opening of the school this fall, 1922, the school will be reorganized into two distinct departments: the senior high school, consisting of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth years of school; and the college, consisting of two full years of college work. The name of the school has been changed to the Weber College.