Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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1892 to 1917 In 1905, to meet a rapidly expanding industrial nation's need for trained men, Villanova opened a School of Technology and instituted courses in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. Neither care nor expense was spared in the erection of new labora- tories and equipping them with apparatus of the latest design. By 1909 there were in use at Villanova the drafting room, and laboratories for Dynamics and Heat, Testing, Electrical Measurement, as well as the Dyna- mo, Mechanical, and Chemical Laboratories. At the sixty-sixth annual commencement, June 15, 1909, Villa- nova graduated its first engineers: John A. White of Williamsport, Pa., and Edward J. Kirsch of Rosemont, Pa., civil engineers; John J. Smith of Altoona, Pa., electrical engineer. At commencement exercises in 1910, the last year of Father DeLurey's administration, the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, was awarded an honorary degree. President Taft also addressed the graduating class. The Rev. Edward G. Dohan was Father DeLurey's successor. During Father Dohan's tenure many fur- Oriqinally tho Belle Air Mansion. old St. Rita'» was used by the college irom the beginning. In 1902. It was converted Irom a student dormitory into a preparatory school lor Augustlnlan novices. In 1912. a little more than a century alter it was built. St. Rita's burned to the ground. Five suburban lire companies (ought the blaze, which inflicted a loss to tho college of approximately $103,000. II»

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1892 to 1917 college STUDENTS' NIGHT at the OF ST. THOMAS OF PROGRAM. VlllXNOVA ther improvements were effected. A new college hall was opened. There were valuable additions to Lab- oratory equipment. And a two year pre-medical course was introduced, designed to meet Pennsyl- vania's requirements for extensive work in chemistry, biology, and physiology. On January 10, 1912, between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, while the clerics were chanting Office in the monastery chapel, St. Rita's Hall took fire and was almost entirely destroyed. It was replaced in the same year by a new building, the chapel of which was blessed on the feast of St. Augustine, August 28th. In the summer of 1914 the clerical students were re- moved to a separate house, which had been donated to the college by Mr. Bernard Corr — St. Mary's Hall. Mr. Corr's generosity made it possible to remedy the previously existing condition of having postulants, novices, and professed all housed in the same build- ing. After the novices and professed were moved to St. Mary's, they were better able to live in community with others who were under the same vows. In 1917 Fr. Dohan was succeeded by the Rev. James Dean, who, since 1893, had been almost continuously connected with the college in various capacities. The Dramatics Society was organized in 1899 with the Rev. Mr. Bernard Daly. O.S.A.. as its ilrst moderator. What is significant about the Rev. Mr. Daly's connection is that he was also moderator o( the debating society. The societies had an organization and pur- poses somewhat similar and it was from the Debating Society that the Dramatics Society recruited most oi its members. The Society's first producton was a four act play. The Man in the Iron Mask , held at the College Hall on December 21. 1900. Hugh Boyle Callahan was cast in the title role. Six months later the Society presented Richelieu at the Walnut Street Theatre In Phila- delphia. with Mr. Callahan again in the title role. However, there was no scarcity of other student organizations or activities. Besides the Dramatics Society were the Glee Club, the Debating Society, the Sodality of the Sacred Heart, the Martinelli Lyceum. In 1904 an orchestra was formed In combination with the Glee Club but was abandoned the next year. The Library Society and the Engineering Society both came into being In 1906. and in 1909 the Commercial Society was founded. Villa nova held Its first Musicals in 1906 and its first Students' Social in 1907.