 This is St. Cloud State in a Minute. In 1869, St. Cloud State University was established and known as the Third State Normal School. An initiative of Minnesota's first state legislature in 1858, it was the Third Normal School in the state. Normal schools were created to educate and prepare teachers for teaching in the common schools of the state. The Sterns House, a former hotel, was purchased and female students lived on the third floor with the library and classrooms below. The first classes were held on September 15th, 1869, where five teachers taught 40 female and 10 male students. That was St. Cloud State in a Minute.