The construction of the second home of the Normal School at the corner of Lodge and Howard streets in 1849, at a cost of $28,500, symbolized the permanent status the School achieved that year. The Executive Committee viewed the corner lot as "a great advantage," for it afforded "separate entrances for the sexes..." The building was thought to be fairly advanced by the standards of the day, but the floor of the assembly room gave way during the January 1852 midyear exercises. (The floor was soon strengthened and the building improved.)