Widener University - Pioneer Yearbook (Chester, PA)

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Cutline of the History of the College saw-,ge N 1821 John Bullock opened a boarding school at Wilmington, Delaware. This institution soon acquired a wide and favorable reputation, and K 4' continued to flourish under his management for twenty-six years. At his death, in 1847, Samuel Alsop secured control of the school, and conducted it success- fully until 1853, when, desiring to locate elsewhere, he trans- ferred, by sale, the equipment and good will to Theodore Hyatt, then in charge of the Parochial School of the First Presbyterian Church of that city. In the Fall of 1858, military instruction was introduced, and speedily took on so definite a form, that, April 19, 1859, the Governor of the state, Hon. William Burton, ordered the delivery to the institution of certain public arms, which equipment consisted of an outfit of rifles and two six-pounder field pieces. Six days later, April 25, Principal Hyatt was appointed aide-de-camp, with rank of colonel, on the staff of the Governor. This radical change in the constitution of the school opened a new era in its history, and, to make the evolution complete, a characteristic name was adopted, Dela- ware Military Academy. At the opening of the Civil War, increased facilities for the conduct of the academy became necessary, and, accord- ingly, an extensive and valuable school property, then vacant, at West Chester, Pennsylvania, was leased. A charterhwas secured from the Legislature, approved April 8, 1862, by Governor Andrew G. Curtin. The following june, the Board of Trustees organized under the corporate title of Pennsylvania Military Academy, and elected Colonel Hyatt president of the institution. During the summer vacation, the school equipment was transferred to the new quarters, and the first session in Pennsylvania opened September 4, 1862. In December, 1865, another change in location was made necessary by the final disposition of the West Chester prop- erty, in settlement of the Bolmar estate, of which it was a part. Chester, eighteen miles distant, offered superior local ' fffj l 41,5 1. ' - '1 1 T l ll I0

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advantages. Suitable quarters were immediately available fthe Crozer Normal School buildingj, and within a month the institution, fully organized, was at work in the city destined to be its permanent home. This change was formally recognized by the Legislature in granting a Supple- ment to the Act of Incorporation, which was approved February 21, 1868. During the year 1867, a number of citizens of Chester, incorporated as the Military Academy Stock Company, pur- chased a fine tract of land on the northeastern border of the city, and proceeded to erect buildings for the use of the school, which was still occupying, under lease, the Crozer property. In June of the same year the cornerstone of the main edifice was laid with appropriate ceremonies, and Sep- tember 3, 1868, the academy opened the doors of its new home to the incoming corps of students. A fire completely destroyed the principal building, February 16, 1882. The interruption of scholastic work was but brief, however, for within less than a month the entire body of students re- assembled at Ridley Park, a borough two miles north of Chester, and took up quarters in the Ridley Park Hotel, which had been rented and furnished for the temporary use of the school, where the appointed work of the year, scholastic and military, was completed with the loss of only one week from the published calendar of the session. Sep- tember, I882, found a new main building occupying the site of that destroyed in February, with increased accommoda- tions, and far greater facilities for the conduct of the various departments of duty. Changes, improvements and additions have marked the passing of recent years, and the present equipment of buildings offers excellent opportunity for the collegiate education and military instruction of a large corps of cadets. A In order that the name of the institution might properly indicate that the Legislature had invested the Board of Trustees with collegiate powers and privileges, the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Decem- ber 12, 1892, changed the corporate title to Pennsylvania Military College. ll