The Fiftieth Anniversary found the School at a low ebb in its history, as one era was ending and another beginning. The School lost two of its most prominent citizens in 1906. When John Hargate died in January 1906 it seemed that a whole epoch of the school’s life and history had passed with him. Then Joseph Coit, who had hoped to be in office for the Fiftieth Anniversary, passed away on March 17, 1906. From 1902 onward Joseph Coit was a figure tragically defeated by age and illness. Although the last five years of his rectorship were difficult times for the school in some ways, his first five years from 1895-1900 had shown a firm and lucid direction of school policy. Joseph Coit was largely responsible for improving academics and bringing in new faculty; for making a strongly reasoned case for the raising of endowment funds; and for the construction of several important and needed buildings. The turn of the century was a time of great change and it signaled the end of the Coit era at St. Paul’s.