University of Pennsylvania - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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UNIVERSITY

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,tg .. ',,. qfxy ss -it-wvgirgrr A Q-'SQ' 211 tv? 553 is 'J WDC at J -A-3 C C, JN J r ,I A Q 'tx ,Z mnulsl 5133! Q un P? 7 qs, , ' I --1 9 f QW mmilliimllllilinll mmm A w i 1552- if 5 E? -1 W i JW' QQ? QQQ 1 ph I x , L X-1 ' '-if By 1 B '2 K. TOWNSEND Moons 'NE Mombo The History oi the University of Pennsylvania dates back to l74O when the Rev. George Whitefield inspired the Charitable School. As one of the greatest Evangelists of his day, Whitefield drew large crowds to hear him, but to him no pulpit in the city was open. With the dual purpose of providing a hall to shelter his congregations and to found a charity school, funds were raised to erect a building on Fourth below Arch. But neither the Charitable School nor Whitefield's meetings proved successful, and the trustees slowly sunk deeply into debt. During this period Benjamin Franklin, one of these Trustees, was endeavoring to start a school for higher learning. At that time there were only three in exist- ence in America: Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary. lt wasn't until 1749 when his celebrated Pro- posals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pen- ' silvania was published that he was able to get enough money to found the Academy, with himself as ' the president of the Board of Trustees. In looking for a location for the Academy, Franklin, as a trustee of both the Charitable School and the Academy, was able to arrange that the building of the Charitable School be taken over by the Academy with the condi- tions that the debts be paid, that the Charitable School be maintained, and that a lecture hall be kept for Visit- ing preachers regardless of sect or denomination. With this merger of objects and property Whitefield's school ' now became the Academy and Charitable School of Pl'1llCId9lpl'1lCI. The presidential residence that became College Hall in 1802. The first medical school in America founded in 1765. With the financial aid of the new trustees gathered by Franklin the Academy and Charitable School was able to make the needed building repairs and open its doors on lanuary 7, l75l. When it opened, it boasted of four schools, the Charitable school, a Latin school, an English school, and a Mathe- matics school, each in the charge of a master. The schools progressed well through popular support, and in 1753 the trustees obtained from Thomas and Richard Penn a charter naming them the Trustees of the Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania.