The date was March 6th, 1903 when Governor Willis J. Bailey signed a bill authorizing the establishment of a school that would train teachers in the manual and domestic arts. This new school was opened under the name of the Kansas State Manual Training School, with founder Russell S. Russ serving as it’s first principal. The Kansas State Manual Training School would operate under the administration of the State Normal School located in Emporia. As of the School’s opening on September 8th, 1903, there were five faculty members and fifty-four students enrolled in courses.
As the first few years passed, enrollment at the Kansas State Manual Training School steadily rose. This can be attributed to the low tuition prices, with Kansas residents able to attend the school for free, and that it was the only school to offer in the state that prepared students to meet the requirements of the new manual training curriculum law, which mandated manual training courses in all the state’s public schools.
Due to the enrollment increases, a bill calling for a building appropriation for the university passed the Senate on March 2nd, 1907 and the first building began construction in August 1907 and was completed in December 1908. With the completion of the building that would soon become known as Russ Hall, the school was able to leave the overcrowded Central School building.
