A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
History
A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
Architecture -- Pennsylvania; Art -- Pennsylvania; Historic buildings -- Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania -- Guidebooks; Pennsylvania -- History
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Thirty-fourth Street and Woodland
Avenue, with a campus of one hundred and seventeen acres along the west
bank of the Schuylkill River and equipment of seventy buildings;
originated in the Charity School, organized, 1740, at Fourth and Arch
Streets; made an academy through the interest of Benjamin Franklin, in
1749; chartered, “The College of Philadelphia,” with power to confer
honorary and collegiate degrees, being the third oldest college in the
United States; in 1799 was organized and chartered as “The University of
the State of Pennsylvania,” making it the first institution in the
United States designated a university; also the first to establish
professional schools distinct from the college. The School of Medicine
was added in 1765, and has always maintained the most advanced
requirements and highest standards of scholarship for graduation; it was
founded by Dr. John Morgan, who held the first medical professorship in
America; he was physician in chief of the Continental Army, 1775-77. The
first American University Professorship in Law was established here,
1790; James Wilson held the position; President Washington attended his
lectures. In 1799, the University conferred on Washington the degree of
LL.D., and later, in 1826, set apart his birthday as University Day, on
which honorary degrees are conferred, with appropriate exercises. Nine
sons of this University signed the Declaration of Independence; seven,
the Constitution of the United States; twenty-one were members of the
Continental Congress; nine, in the United States Senate; eight were
Attorney-Generals of states or of the United States; six were Justices
of the Supreme Court; seven, Governors of states; and many others were
Officers in the Army and men in public life, who had received their
education in the old building, Fourth and Arch Streets, before 1800.
In 1802 the University was moved to Ninth and Chestnut Streets, and
occupied the presidential mansion, now site of the Post Office; in 1872,
moved to the present site in West Philadelphia. In 1912, under the
administration of Provost Edgar Fahs Smith, The University Extension
Courses were formed, and the college made into three departments with a
dean for each. The COLLEGE, founded 1740, includes School of Arts;
Summer School; College Courses for Teachers; Courses in Biology and
Music. THE TOWNE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL, founded, 1875, includes,
Architecture, Chemistry, Science, Technology, Mechanical, Electrical and
Civil Engineering. WHARTON SCHOOL OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE, founded 1881,
includes, School of Accounts and Finance in Philadelphia; and the
Extension Schools of Finance and Accounts in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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