Crozer Theological Seminary

Last updated

Old Main
OldMainUpland.JPG
Old Main Building, Upland, Pennsylvania, November 2009
USA Pennsylvania location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location21st St. and Upland Ave., Upland, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 39°51′21″N75°22′17″W / 39.85583°N 75.37139°W / 39.85583; -75.37139
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1857
Architectural styleItalianate
NRHP reference No. 73001626 [1]
Added to NRHPJune 18, 1973

The Crozer Theological Seminary was a Baptist seminary located in Upland, Pennsylvania, and founded in 1868. It was named after the wealthy industrialist, John Price Crozer.

Contents

Martin Luther King Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, [2] being elected student body president [3] and graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. [4]

In 1970, the seminary merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary, forming the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York and the seminary's Old Main building was subsequently used as office space by Crozer Hospital (now part of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.) The Old Main building is a three-story, F-shaped, stucco-coated stone building with three pavilions connected by a corridor with flanking rooms. Each of the pavilions is topped by a gable roof and cupola, the largest cupola being on the central pavilion. [5] The seminary's grounds are now the Crozer Arboretum.

The Old Main building in Upland was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. [1]

History

Crozer Chester Medical Center Campus Map Crozer Chester Medical Center Campus Map.jpg
Crozer Chester Medical Center Campus Map
Crozer Hall Crozer Hall.jpg
Crozer Hall
Lewis House Lewis House at Crozer Theological Seminary.jpg
Lewis House
Vedder House Vedder House.jpg
Vedder House

The Seminary began as the Normal School of Upland, established and built by the president of the board of directors of the American Baptist Publication Society, John Price Crozer. [6] [7] After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the school was closed. [8]

Crozer allowed the Union army to use the building as a hospital during the Civil War. The hospital contained a thousand beds and accommodated 300 nurses, attendants and guards. The patients were almost exclusively Union soldiers except for after the battle of Gettysburg, in July 1863, when the number of wounded and sick Confederate army soldiers left on the battlefield required their acceptance at the hospital. During the war, more than 6,000 patients were treated. Many of the dead from the hospital were some of the first burials at nearby Chester Rural Cemetery. [9]

After the war, the building was repossessed by Crozer and subsequently sold to Colonel Theodore Hyatt for use as the Pennsylvania Military Academy until 1868. [10] [11]

Crozer died in 1866. When Old Main was vacated by the Pennsylvania Military Academy his family converted the school to the Crozer Theological Seminary in his honor. His son recruited faculty for the new mission, [12] It served as an American Baptist Church school, training seminarians for entry into the Baptist ministry from 1868 to 1970. [13] Henry G. Watson was named its first President in 1869.

In 1970 the school moved to Rochester, New York, in a merger that formed the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. [14] The old seminary building was used as the former Crozer Hospital (now the Crozer-Chester Medical Center). The building is currently used as administrative offices for the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Presidents
NameTenure
Henry G. Weston1869–1909
Milton G. Evans1909–1934
James H. Franklin1934–1944
Edwin E. Aubrey1944–1949
Sankey Lee Blanton1950–1962
Ronald V. Wells1962–1970

Campus

The multi-acre campus contains the Crozer Arboretum and the following buildings:

Pearl Hall

Pearl Hall Library Pearl Hall Library of Crozer Theological Seminary.jpg
Pearl Hall Library

Pearl Hall is a serpentine stone library on the campus which opened on June 4, 1871. [15] The building was sponsored by William Bucknell, the benefactor of Bucknell University, in memory of his late wife Margaret Crozer, the daughter of John Price Crozer. In addition to the $30,000 cost of the building, Bucknell also gave $25,000 for the cost of books and $10,000 for an endowment fund. [16]

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ Nojeim, Michael J. (2004). Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 179. ISBN 0-275-96574-0
  3. ↑ Frady, Marshall (2002). Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-303648-7.
  4. ↑ Downing, Frederick L. (1986). To See the Promised Land: The Faith Pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr. Mercer University Press. p. 150. ISBN 0-86554-207-4
  5. ↑ Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks (June 1972). National Register of Historic Places Registration: Pennsylvania SP Old Main. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved December 17, 2025. (Downloading may be slow.)
  6. ↑ Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 462–464. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  7. ↑ Ashmeade, Henry Graham (1884). History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. p. 432. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  8. ↑ Cope, Gilbert (1904). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. p. 7. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  9. ↑ "About Us - Chester Rural Cemetery". www.chesterruralcemetery.org. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  10. ↑ Cope, Gilbert (1904). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. p. 8. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Crozer Theological Society". www.uplandboro.org. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ Brackney, William H. (2004), A genetic history of Baptist thought : with special reference to Baptists in Britain and North America, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, p. 369, ISBN   978-0-86554-913-5, OCLC   260116581 , retrieved October 6, 2009
  13. ↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2021, p. 630
  14. ↑ Dugan, George (May 17, 1970), "BAPTIST SEMINARY PLANS TO MERGE; Crozer Theological to Join With School in Rochester", The New York Times , p. 36, ISSN   0362-4331 , retrieved October 6, 2009
  15. ↑ Ashmead, Henry Graham (1884). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H Everts & Co. p. 434. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  16. ↑ Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 463. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ Pyatt, Jim (February 5, 2025). "Celebrating Black History Month in the WNCC: Rev. Dr. Elmer P. Gibson". Western North Carolina Conference. Retrieved December 26, 2025.
  18. ↑ "Elmer Gibson". National Park Service. Retrieved December 26, 2025.
  19. ↑ King, Martin Luther Jr.; Carson, Clayborne (1998), "Chapter 3: Crozer Seminary", The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., New York City: Warner Books, ISBN   9-780-4465-2412-4, OCLC   39399036 , retrieved October 26, 2020– via Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Stanford University
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.