Sylvanus Stall Girls High School

Missionaries pioneered the women's education as part of their missionary work. Mrs. Lorena Gunn, the first woman missionary in Guntur was in charge of Guntur schools from 1844 to 1853. Though women missionaries like Mrs. Schure, Mrs. Unangst, Mrs. Uhl, Mrs. Rowe, Miss Dryden, Miss Sadtler and Mrs. Wolf carried on the school work in Guntur, the first normal school for girls was opened in February 1892 with Mrs. G. Thaayaaramma as Head Mistress. Afterwards, Miss Minnie Moses, Miss Sadler, Mrs. Albrecht and Dr. & Mrs. Aberly helped with the school discipline. The school was raised to Lower Secondary in 1900 and upgraded to Higher Secondary School in 1907.

As the school was growing, the building with mud walls was not adequate and the need was to build a bigger building. Miss Brewer, principal of the school was instrumental in raising funds for a fine school building. Foreign Missionary Society of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church helped to a large extent in this effort.

Rev. Dr. Sylvanus Stall, a Lutheran pastor, author and philanthropist donated more than one-third of the total cost of the building. Though not a wealthy man, in this benefaction he had not given a little out of much, but very much out of a little. For his generosity, his name was given to the school. The ground was broken on April 11, 1910, corner-stone was laid on July 13, 1910 and the Stall School was dedicated on April 10, 1912. This large building is 280 feet long and 112 feet deep. It was built of light gray stone. The walls being three to four feet thick, it is intended to last many centuries. Afterwards, a compound wall was erected around the School.

The first student graduated from Stall High School was Chegudi Victoria Danamma, daughter of Mr. Chegudi Joshua, in 1919. She was sent to Women’s Christian College in Madras and two years later to Madras University for B. Sc. After completing her degree, Mrs. C. Victoria Joshua (wife of Rao Saheb T. S. Paulus) had the honor of becoming first Indian Head Mistress of Stall Girls' High School.

The famous saying “Great Oaks from little acorns grow” is very much true in the life of this school. Over the years, several missionaries contributed their services to shape Stall School into a successful girl’s school and the list of those missionaries includes Miss Fuller, Miss Knauss, Miss Jessie Brewer, Miss Tillie Nelson, Miss Florence Welty, Miss Emma Johnson, Miss Susan Glatz, Miss Edith Eykamp and Miss Hazel Naugle.

The Sylvanus Stall Girls High School celebrated the centenary fete in November 2007. Over the century, those women who studied in this school generation after generation rightly proved the old adage — “If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family”.