The rise of public schools – also known as common schools – in the 19th century revealed the urgent need for qualified teachers. Education reformers began pressing legislatures to follow the lead of Prussia and France, which were establishing “Ecole Normale” (translated as “common schools”) for the state-sponsored (free) training of teachers. The first “normal” school was established in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1839 and the idea spread. 

Town boosterism, not a commitment to education, is credited with the location of Normal schools throughout the United States in the second half of the 1800s. Towns competed fiercely for the prestige. In Connecticut, the first normal school was established in New Britain. Willimantic won the right to have the second school with New Haven following soon after. Danbury and Waterbury (Bridgeport declined to participate) engaged in a bruising battle fought in the state legislature for the placement of the fourth - and last – Normal school in the state. Danbury won and the seeds of the state university system were planted.

For more information see: Ogren, Christine A. The American State Normal School. New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2005;

The first Normal school in Connecticut – and the sixth in the country - was established by the Connecticut legislature in 1850 and was situated in New Britain. The first students attended classes in a school building being used by elementary and high school students.

The building being built for the Town Hall was pressed into service while a larger building was being built. The school’s location changed several times through the years, before the present site on Stanley Street was chosen in 1922.

New Britain Sate Normal School (1883) – Historic Buildings of Connecticut (historicbuildingsct.com)

CCSU  https://www.ccsu.edu/about/profile.html

Willimantic Normal School followed New Britain in 1889. Classes were held on the third floor of the Savings Institute building on Main Street.

A new building was built for the school and opened in 1894. In 1943 it was destroyed in a fire and the legislature had to be lobbied to approve a new building for the school.

History Book of Eastern Connecticut https://issuu.com/easternctstateuniversity/docs/historybook

ECSU, https://www.easternct.edu/about-eastern/history.html

New Haven Normal School was established in 1893. The first class of 85 women attended Normal School classes held at the elementary school, Skinner School, on State Street

A site at Howe and Oak Streets was chosen to erect a new building to house the school. The building opened in 1896.

SCSU History https://scsuhistory.wordpress.com/the-early-years/#:~:text=The%20New%20Haven%20State%20Normal,made%20up%20the%20first%20class

SCSU, https://www.southernct.edu/about/history

Danbury Normal School was established by the State legislature in 1903. Normal school students attended their first classes on the top floor (attic) of the Danbury High School building on Main Street.

Land for the new school was donated by Alexander White, a native of Danbury and a successful businessman, importing furs to be used in the hatting industry, He donated several acres of his farm for the school on what is now White Street.  The new building, now known as Old Main, was built in 1904 and classes moved over from the high school.  The principal of Danbury High School, John R. Perkins, became the first principal of the new Normal School.

WCSU, https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/pioneers/normal