Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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I In 1853 th« Villanovo College campus consisted of only four buildings. From left to right, the orig- inal chapel, the Rudolph House part of the original purchase ond used as the Monastery and Fac- ulty House. In 1844 the first College Building was erected and next to it stood the stone born also part of the original purchase. AS VILLANOVA GREW In the Catholic Herald. the diocesan paper of Phila- delphia in years ago, there appeared in 1841. a small article recording the purchase of a tract of land in Radnor Township by the Rev. Patrick E. Moriarity. O.S.A.. from the estate of John Rudolph, a former local Catholic merchant and Revolutionary War officer. Unob- trusive as this brief report may have made the transac- tion appear, this purchase to us is important, because the land in question was what Rudolph called Belle Air. and it was there that Villanovo College received its start one hundred and six years ago. Belle Air was merely a family estate in those days, but as you look about the campus todoy. you con see that it has pro- gressively multiplied itself, not only in the facilities, in concrete and mortar, but in the friendliness, the tradi- tion. tho spirit that help make up the Augustinion Col- lege of Villanovo. The first day of class at the new college in September of 1843. brought forth a student body of thirteen under the direction of a faculty of ten, led by the president of the college, the Rev. John P. O'Dwyer. O.S.A. This acorn from which the mighty oak of Villanovo has grown, was indeed small. Villanovo was founded for the purpose of giving young men a liberal education according to the Catholic prin- ciples. The first Prospectus, issued during the second year of the life of the college, clarified this by stating. ... a classical and scientific, or purely mercantile education will be given the students, or the one so blended with the other os to qualify the pupil to embrace any of the learned professions, or to apply himself in business. This purpose of Villanovo is double in effect, in that it prepares candidates for the world, while preserving for them the ideal of their destiny in Eternity. The formal opening of Villanovo took place under the sanction of Pope Gregory XVI, in 1843, when the first Mass was said on the campus on the feast of St. Augustine in that year. At that service, the original building was blessed and placed under the patronage of

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Fn . ,o9' 9 Aen l«' ■ ;;»««- -,rt£i»' k “'ua ’d o J »• °‘ C. °“e -ere d n)rr r Scfcoo c r°y d • Kt'UiJP,9d bY o S’,,;0', '» eoW is»';■'• ■ 4T°' Ct'? ' «. ’ ‘o'—.... • ' -SrtrtJ I '' 0. „„ » 'o . 9 ‘“«mg. ‘ ,,0“ a ,0 » FQUNllATIUjY DEVELDPME1VT EXPANSION S;. Thomas of Villanovo. the well-known Spanish saint of the sixteenth century. Since that day. the college and the surrounding countryside has been popularly colled Villanovo. Advancing along the academic pathway. Villanovo soon received formal recognition and legal acceptance from Governor Francis R. Shunk of Pennsylvania, who in 1848 granted to the Augustinion College of Villanovo in the County of Deloware and the State of Pennsylvania. a charter to teach and grant degrees that would be recognized by other colleges and universities in the United States. It wos not until seven years after the charter had been granted that the new college exercised its prerogative and oworded the first Bachelor of Arts degree bearing the name of Villanovo. Until the turn of the century, Villanovo had been strictly an arts college. The curriculum, not unlike that of the Arts School today, included the study of English. Greek, Latin. History, Mathematics. Logic. Rhetoric. Phi- losophy. and modern languages. The students in the early days were governed by strict rules, forbidding snuff, tobacco, liquor, bad conduct and misbehavior. All led regular lives, arising ot 5:30 in the morning, and get- ting to bed by 9 in the evening. The entire college, priests and resident students, was housed and taught in the monastery until the new college building was com-