Every week the Town Crier blog will look back at Seattle’s near forgotten Town Crier magazine to see what was happening then and talk about what’s happening now. One of the largest sections of the original Town Crier was “What People Are Doing,” highlighting things like, “The annual ‘high jinks’ for and by the members of Rainier Club were staged last Saturday night and there was fun galore,” and, “The Christmas tree and party that was given for lonesome girls away from their homes proved to be a happy success.”  In this new series we’re revisiting the old column and tying it to our community’s current happenings, asking: “what are people doing?”

Today’s entry…

There’s an ad on page 11 of the December 28, 1918 edition of the Town Crier. It lists the faculty of the Cornish School of Music. Piano teachers include, amongst others, Miss Mabel Fett, Miss Fedelia Burgess, and Mr. Dent Mowrey. Voice teachers include Brabazon Lowther and Mrs. Sara Y.B. Peabody. There are instructors in dancing and public speaking. There are dramatic coaches and Mr. Hubert A. Grass teaches harp.

Nellie Cornish

Cornish College of the Arts was founded in Seattle four years earlier, in 1914, by Nellie C. Cornish. Signing a lease for a studio space at Broadway and Pine and Capitol Hill, backed by Cornish’s wealthy friends, the Cornish School of Music was born. Believing that the arts should be developed in everyone, and that everyone should be able to be enriched by the arts, she created a school that reflected those beliefs.

Cornish continues to be guided by Nellie’s beliefs. “Our holistic approach to education,” Cornish’s website reads, “promotes experimentation, discovery, and innovation, giving artists the creative intelligence they need to thrive in their disciplines and beyond.” Teachers at Cornish since its founding include such greats as Mark Tobey, Martha Graham, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Morris Graves.

To learn more about Cornish College of the Arts and its history go, here.