Crozer Theological Seminary

Old Main
Old Main Building of Crozer Theological Seminary, November 2009
Location 21st St. and Upland Ave., Upland, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 39°51′21″N 75°22′17″W / 39.85583°N 75.37139°W / 39.85583; -75.37139Coordinates: 39°51′21″N 75°22′17″W / 39.85583°N 75.37139°W / 39.85583; -75.37139
Area 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built 1857
Architectural style Italianate
NRHP reference # 73001626[1]
Added to NRHP June 18, 1973

The Crozer Theological Seminary was a multi-denominational religious institution located in Upland, Pennsylvania. The school succeeded a Normal School established at the site in 1858 by the weathly textile manufacturer John Price Crozer.[2] The Old Main building was used as a hospital during the American Civil War. The seminary served as an American Baptist Church school, training seminarians for the entry into the Baptist ministry from 1869 to 1970.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951 and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.

In 1970, the seminary merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York and the Old Main building was used as office space by Crozer Hospital (now part of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.) It is a three-story, "F"-shaped, stucco coated stone building. It has three pavilions connected by a corridor with flanking rooms. Each of the pavilions is topped by a gable roof and cupola, the largest cupola being on the central pavilion.[3] The seminary's grounds are now the Crozer Arboretum.

The Old Main building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]

History

Crozer Chester Medical Center Campus Map
Crozer Hall
Lewis House
Vedder House

The Seminary began as the Normal School of Upland, established and built by wealthy textile manufacturer John Price Crozer.[4] After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the school was closed.[5]

Crozer allowed the Union army to use the building as a hospital during the Civil War. The hospital contained a thousand beds and accommodated 300 nurses, attendants and guards. The patients were almost exclusively Union soldiers except for after the battle of Gettysburg, in July 1863, when the number of wounded and sick Confederate army soldiers left on the battlefield required their acceptance at the hospital. During the war, more than 6,000 patients were treated. After the war, the building was repossessed by Crozer and subsequently sold to Colonel Theodore Hyatt for usage as the Pennsylvania Military Academy until 1868.[6][7]

After Crozer's death in 1866, his family converted the school to the Crozer Theological Seminary in his honor. His son recruited faculty for the new mission.[8]

In 1970 the school moved to Rochester, New York, in a merger that formed the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.[9] The old seminary building was used as the former Crozer Hospital (now the Crozer-Chester Medical Center). The building is currently used as administrative offices for the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Presidents
Name Tenure
Harry G. Weston 1869–1909
Milton G. Evans 1909–1934
James H. Franklin 1934–1944
Edwin E. Aubrey 1944–1949
Sankey Lee Blanton 1950–1962
Ronald V. Wells 1962–1970

Campus

The multi-acre campus contains the Crozer Arboretum and the following buildings:

  • Humpstone
  • President's House
  • Pollard House
  • CHEC
  • Evans House
  • Crozer Hall
  • Neisser House
  • Lewis House
  • Vedder House
  • Davis House
  • Sunnyside House
  • Westin House
  • Franklin House

Pearl Hall

Pearl Hall Library

Pearl Hall is a serpentine stone library on the campus which opened on June 4, 1871.[10] The building was sponsored by William Bucknell, the benefactor of Bucknell University, in memory of his late wife Margaret Crozer, the daughter of John Price Crozer. In addition to the $30,000 cost of the building, Bucknell also gave $25,000 for the cost of books and $10,000 for an endowment fund.[11]

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

  • John Warren Davis, taught Hebrew and Greek for three years
  • Lemuel Moss, professor of New Testament
  • James B. Pritchard, taught in the chair of Old Testament History and Exegesis
  • Henry Clay Vedder, professor of Church history
  • W. Kenneth Cauthen, John Price Crozer Griffith Emeritus Professor of Theology, taught at Crozer from 1961-1992.

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 462–464. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  3. ↑ "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks (June 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Old Main" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  4. ↑ Ashmeade, Henry Graham (1884). History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. p. 432. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  5. ↑ Cope, Gilbert (1904). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. p. 7. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Cope, Gilbert (1904). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. p. 8. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Crozer Theological Society". www.uplandboro.org. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  8. ↑ Brackney, William H. (2004), A genetic history of Baptist thought : with special reference to Baptists in Britain and North America, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, p. 369, ISBN 978-0-86554-913-5, OCLC 260116581, retrieved 2009-10-06
  9. ↑ Dugan, George (1970-05-17), "BAPTIST SEMINARY PLANS TO MERGE; Crozer Theological to Join With School in Rochester", The New York Times, p. 36, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved 2009-10-06
  10. ↑ Ashmead, Henry Graham (1884). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H Everts & Co. p. 434. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  11. ↑ Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 463. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  12. ↑ King, Martin Luther; Carson, Clayborne (1998), The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., New York, New York: Warner Books, p. 62, OCLC 39399036, retrieved 2009-10-06
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.