Lake Shore Seminary

Last updated
Lake Shore Seminary
Address
16 W. Division Street

North East
,
Pennsylvania

United States
Information
School type Private Preparatory School and College
Religious affiliation(s) Methodist Episcopal Church
OpenedAugust 1871
Closed1881

Lake Shore Seminary was an American educational institution in North East, Pennsylvania. This coeducational high school and college opened in 1871 as a collaborative effort of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. It included a campus of 84 acres and a newly constructed four-story building. Although it attracted 150 students, the opening debts of the school and the withdrawal of the Presbyterian church from the effort resulted in bankruptcy. Lake Shore Seminary closed in 1881. Later its campus was used for Saint Mary's College and Mercyhurst North East.

Contents

History

In the 1860s, the Erie Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church decided to create a seminary in North East, Pennsylvania because the community lacked a public high school. [1] [2] [3] The Lake Shore Seminary was chartered by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for "a literary purpose" in 1867. [4] On April 13, 1867, the Pennsylvania State Senate and Pennsylvania House of Representatives gave the seminary's board authority to borrow money and issue bonds. [4] Rev. John T. Oxtoby was the president of the school's board of directors. [5] [6]

The seminary's board secured contributions and acquired a property north of town that was previously owned by the Hall family. [2] [7] [8] Construction of a building began in 1867; the cornerstone was placed in October 1868 and the building was completed in 1870. [9] [2] The building was estimated to cost $30,000 ($686,700 in today's money). [10] Because of this large cost, the Erie Conference collaborated with the Presbyterian Church to create and run the seminary. [2] [1] In total, the new school cost $75,000 ($1,807,105 in today's money), with the community supporting some of its cost. [11]

Lake Shore Seminary opened in August 1871 as a coeducational preparatory school and college. [12] [2] [11] Its professors included J. P. Mills, L. T. Kirke, and Wilbur Garrison Williams. [12] Mills was the school's first principal and president of its faculty. [11] [5] Laura Reddy Buckey served as its preceptress. [13]

By 1873, the school has 150 students. [9] However, the Presbyterians became unsatisfied with the joint management of the seminary and withdrew their support. [2] The Erie Conference could not carry the school's debts on its own. [2] In January 1877, it was advertised that the school would be sold at the Erie County Sherriff's sale; however, newspapers in February noted that the seminary avoided being sold for its debts. [14] [15] H. U. Johnson became the seminary's principal in July 1877. [16] The Lake Shore Seminary went bankrupt in 1881. [9] [12]

The seminary's trustees tried to sell the campus to the U.S. government for use as a school for Native Americans. [2] When that initiative failed, it was sold through a bankruptcy sale. [2] The People's Savings Institution (later North East Savings Bank) acquired the seminary's building and grounds in a sheriff's sale. [9] [2] [12] The bank was the primary creditor in the seminary's bankruptcy. [7] The bank sold the former campus to the Redemptorists Fathers of Annapolis, Maryland on February 1, 1881, for $10,000 ($315,724 in today's money). [9] [12] They established a preparatory school for Catholic priests called St. Mary's College that opened on August 2, 1881. [9] [12] The Redemptorists expanded the campus buildings but closed the high school in 1987. [1] [17] Mercyhurst College purchased the former seminary in 1991 and used it as Mercyhurst North East until 2020. [18] [19]

Campus

The campus of Lake Shore Seminary was located on Division and North Lake Streets (now 16 W. Division Street) on the highest point in North East, Pennsylvania. [9] [12] [1] It had a view of Lake Erie. [20] It consisted of 84 acres (34 ha) and a building constructed in 1870. [19] [9] The brick building was in the Second Empire style and had four stories, that included classrooms, a dining room, a chapel that could seat 400 people, and dormitories for 100 students. [1] [9] [8] It was 168 feet long and 60 feet deep. [8]

Academics

Although affiliated with the Methodist Church, the seminary's curriculum was non-denominational. [9] [12] The seminary taught ancient and modern language, drawing, English, mathematics, metaphysics, music, painting, and teaching. [2] Students could enter the school at any time. [6] The Pennsylvania legislature allowed the seminary to issue certificates, literary degrees, Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees, and Masters of Arts (MA) degrees. [4] However, the seminar closed before it "reached the grade for which it was intended". [11] The school graduated many teachers who taught in the state's public school system. [11]

In 1876, the cost for tuition, room, and board was $33 to $35 per quarter. [21] Students and teachers had a cooperative system for board, keeping costs to $1.97 a week. [21]

Student life

The seminary had a chapter of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity from 1871 to 1875. [22] [23]

Notable alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erie County, Pennsylvania</span> County in Pennsylvania, United States

Erie County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the northernmost county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,876. Its county seat is Erie. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. The county is part of the Northwest Pennsylvania region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crawford County, Pennsylvania</span> County in Pennsylvania, United States

Crawford County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,938. Its county seat is Meadville. The county was created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County and named for Colonel William Crawford. The county is part of the Northwest Pennsylvania region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North East, Pennsylvania</span> Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

North East is a borough in Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States, 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Erie. Located in the county's northeastern corner, the name comes from the geographical location. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census, down from 4,294 in 2010. Fruit growing was an early economic endeavor, and is still to this day, as this is a popular area especially for cherries and grapes. There is an annual Cherry Festival in the summer and an annual Wine Country Harvest Festival in autumn. It is part of the Erie Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the northernmost town in Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Military Academy</span> United States historic place

The Michigan Military Academy, also known as M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by J. Sumner Rogers and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy. Some journalists have referred to the school as the Second West Point. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Orchard Lake Schools Historic District.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage remains a major rail transportation corridor used by Amtrak passenger trains and several freight lines; in 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland, Ohio, between CSX Transportation to the east and Norfolk Southern Railway in the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercyhurst University</span> Catholic college in Erie, Pennsylvania, US

Mercyhurst University is a private Roman Catholic university in Erie, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Pennsylvania</span> Region of Pennsylvania, United States

Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania encompassing the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic and cultural center. Erie, Altoona, and Johnstown are its other metropolitan centers. As of the 2010 census, Western Pennsylvania's total population is nearly 4 million.

The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio, in the Haselton neighborhood in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania, to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie until the formation of Conrail in 1976. The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of materials. It was a specialized railroad, deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania Company</span>

The Pennsylvania Company, later known publicly as the Pennsylvania Lines was a major holding company. It included the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, the PRR's main route to Chicago. It also owned but did not operate the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, another line to Chicago. It merged back into the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conneaut Creek</span> River in Pennsylvania, United States

Conneaut Creek is a 43.5-mile (70.0 km) tributary of Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio in the United States. Via Lake Erie, the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, it is part of the watershed of the St. Lawrence River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad is a historic railroad company that operated in Pennsylvania and New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercyhurst North East</span> Catholic college in Pennsylvania, U.S.

Mercyhurst North East was a two-year Catholic liberal arts college in North East, Pennsylvania. It was a branch campus of Mercyhurst University. The college was established in 1991 when Mercyhurst College purchased the former St. Mary's College from Redemptorist Fathers, a property first established as Lake Shore Seminary in 1870. Mercyhurst North East offered one-year certificates and two-year associate degrees in a variety of majors. The school campus closed at the end of the 2020–2021 term, consolidating all programs into the larger Mercyhurst campus in Erie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercyhurst Preparatory School</span> Private, coeducational school in Erie, , Pennsylvania, United States

Mercyhurst Preparatory School, commonly called Mercyhurst Prep or MPS, is a Catholic, coeducational secondary school located in Erie, Pennsylvania. In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, the school is located behind Mercyhurst University on East Grandview Boulevard. It is a member of the International Baccalaureate program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hocking Valley Railway</span>

The Hocking Valley Railway was a railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio, with a main line from Toledo to Athens and Pomeroy via Columbus. It also had several branches to the coal mines of the Hocking Valley near Athens. The company became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway system in 1910, and the line between Toledo and Columbus continues to see trains as CSX Transportation's Columbus Subdivision. Portions of the main line south of Columbus are now operated by the Indiana and Ohio Railway and Hocking Valley Scenic Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conneaut School District</span> School district in Pennsylvania

The Conneaut School District is a public school district in Crawford County, Pennsylvania and geographically encompasses approximately the western third of the county. The school district is approximately 8 miles west of Meadville, 40 miles (64 km) south of Erie and 91 miles (146 km) north of Pittsburgh. Comprising a total area of approximately 381 square miles (990 km2), the school district is bordered on the south by Mercer County, on the west by the state of Ohio, on the north by Erie County and on the east by the city of Meadville. The school district comprises the Boroughs of Conneaut Lake, Conneautville, Linesville and Springboro; and the Townships of Beaver, Conneaut, East Fallowfield, Greenwood, North Shenango, Pine, Sadsbury, Spring, Summerhill, Summit and West Fallowfield. The school district can be classified as rural with the majority of the work force employed in area contiguous to that of the school district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercyhurst Lakers men's ice hockey</span> College ice hockey team

The Mercyhurst Lakers men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey team that represents Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania under Head Coach Rick Gotkin. The team is currently a Division I hockey team playing out of the Mercyhurst Ice Center located on the school campus. The Mercyhurst Lakers started out as a club sport at the school, moving up to Division III, followed by Division II, and now plays in Division I in Atlantic Hockey America, formed shortly after the 2023–24 season by the merger of the Lakers' former home, the Atlantic Hockey Association, with College Hockey America. After joining their step up into Division I in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 1998, the Lakers have won their conference tournament making NCAA tournament appearances in 2001, 2003, and 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (1848–1869)</span> 19th-century American railroad

The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (CP&A), also known informally as the Cleveland and Erie Railroad, the Cleveland and Buffalo Railroad, and the Lake Shore Railroad, was a railway which ran from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Founded in 1848, the line opened in 1852. The railroad completed the rail link between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois.

The Jamestown and Franklin Railroad (J&F) was a shortline railroad which operated in the U.S. states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Established in 1862, its main line ran from Jamestown, Pennsylvania, to Oil City, Pennsylvania. A branch line connected Jamestown with Ashtabula, Ohio. The railroad leased itself to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1864 for 20 years. A 1909 consolidation with three other railroads created the Jamestown, Franklin and Clearfield Railroad, and ended the J&F's existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Union Depot</span> Railway station in Cleveland, Ohio

Union Depot was the name given to two intercity railroad stations in Cleveland, Ohio. Union Depot was built as the first union station in Cleveland in 1853. After a large fire in 1864, a new structure was built, and was the largest train station in the United States until construction of Grand Central Depot in New York City in 1871. The depot was operated by multiple railroads until 1930, when all except the Pennsylvania Railroad dropped their services and utilized Cleveland Union Terminal, which opened that year. The Pennsylvania Railroad continued to use the depot until 1953, and the building was demolished in 1959.

The Pennsylvania Petroleum Railroad was a railroad in Pennsylvania originally chartered in 1871, during the Pennsylvania oil rush. Intended to provide an additional outlet from the Pennsylvania oil fields to Erie, Pennsylvania, it graded about ten miles of line in 1872, but was then caught up in the collapse of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, which halted the project. The company was foreclosed and reorganized under new names many times, but accomplished relatively little. It laid a short segment of line in 1890 in Titusville, Pennsylvania which was leased to a subsidiary of the New York Central to be used as a siding to a tannery. Further construction took place in 1913 with the idea of opening it as an electric railway to Cambridge Springs, but this, too, was never completed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Beates, Susan; Blystone III, Rodney E. (1990). A Walking Tour of Historic North East Pennsylvania (PDF) (2nd ed.). North East: North East Area Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Miller, John (1909). A Twentieth Century History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Vol. 2. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 353–354 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Simpson, Matthew, ed. (1878). Cyclopedia of Methodism: Embracing Sketches of Its Rise, Progress, and Present Condition. Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart. p. 703 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 3 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1867). Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1867. Harrisburg: Singerly & Myers, State Printers. p. 1242 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 "Opening Exercises at the Lake Shore Seminary". The Titusville Herald. Titusville, Pennsylvania. 1871-08-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "Lake Shore Seminary". The Titusville Herald. Titusville, Pennsylvania. 1871-10-14. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Vol. 1. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. 1884. p. 455 – via Google Books.
  8. 1 2 3 "From the Keystone State". Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph. Ashtabula, Ohio. 1877-08-03. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "North East Borough, Erie County, Pennsylvania (PA)". www.livingplaces.com. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  10. ↑ Stiles, S. M. (1871). Methodism in the State of Pennsylvania, as Represented in State Convention: Held in Philadelphia, October 18-20, 1870. Methodist Episcopal Book Room. p. 76 – via Google Books.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Pennsylvania Dept. of Public Instruction (1878). Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Year Ending June 1, 1877. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Lane S. Hart, State Printer. p. 261 – via Google Books.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bates, Samuel P. "North East Township and Borough of North East", Chapter IX: Township Histories in History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1884, pp. 750-760. via Erie County, Pennsylvania Genealogy Project
  13. ↑ Women, Cazenovia Junior College for (1877). First Fifty Years of Cazenovia Seminary, 1825-1875: Its History, Proceedings of the Semi-centennial Jubilee, General Catalogue. Nelson & Phillips. p. 238 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "The Lake Shore Seminary". The Conneautville Courier. Conneautville, Pennsylvania. 1877-02-14. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Local and General News". The Conneautville Courier. Conneautville, Pennsylvania. 1877-01-31. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Prof. H. U. Johnson of Orwell". Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph. Ashtabula, Ohio. 1877-07-20. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "HS Seminary to Close Doors". Indiana Gazette. Indiana, Pennsylvania. 1987-04-18. p. 16. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "Our History". Mercyhurst. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  19. 1 2 Donnelly, Lu (2018-07-17). "Mercyhurst North East Campus (St. Mary's Seminary)". SAH ARCHIPEDIA. Charlottesville, Virginia: Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  20. ↑ "From North East, PA.; Teacher's Institute". The Pittsburgh Commercial. 1874-11-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  21. 1 2 "Lake Shore Seminary". Butler Citizen. Butler, Pennsylvania. 1876-07-19. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ Lurding, Carroll and Becque, Fran. (August 5, 2023) "Closed Institutions". Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities . Urbana: University of Illinois. Accessed December 21, 2023.
  23. ↑ Baird, William Raimond (1905). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (6th ed.). New York: The Alcolm Company. p. 544 – via Google Books.
  24. ↑ "A Man Nationally Known and Locally Forgotten (Until Now)". Erie Yesterday. July 1, 2011. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  25. ↑ Herringshaw, Thomas William, ed. (1926). Herringshaw's American Blue-Book of Biography; Prominent Americans of 1926. Chicago: American Blue Book Publisher. p. 555 – via Google Books.
  26. ↑ "Active Life of Judge Walling". The Daily Republican. Monongahela, Pennsylvania. 1916-10-16. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-09– via Newspapers.com.
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.