Crozer Theological Seminary

The Crozer Theological Seminary was a multi-denominational religious institution located in Upland, Pennsylvania. The school succeeded a Normal School established at the site in 1858 by the wealthy textile manufacturer John Price Crozer.[2] The Old Main building was used as a hospital during the American Civil War. The seminary served as an American Baptist Church school, training seminarians for the entry into the Baptist ministry from 1869 to 1970.

Old Main
Old Main Building of Crozer Theological Seminary, November 2009
Location21st St. and Upland Ave., Upland, Pennsylvania
Coordinates39°51′21″N 75°22′17″W
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1857
Architectural styleItalianate
NRHP reference No.73001626[1]
Added to NRHPJune 18, 1973

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951 and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.

In 1970, the seminary merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary, forming the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York and the 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.[3] The seminary's grounds are now the Crozer Arboretum.

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

History
Crozer Chester Medical Center Campus Map
Crozer Hall
Lewis House
Vedder House

The Seminary began as the Normal School of Upland, established and built by wealthy textile manufacturer John Price Crozer.[4] After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the school was closed.[5]

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.[6]

After the war, the building was repossessed by Crozer and subsequently sold to Colonel Theodore Hyatt for usage as the Pennsylvania Military Academy until 1868.[7][8]

After Crozer's death in 1866, his family converted the school to the Crozer Theological Seminary in his honor. His son recruited faculty for the new mission.[9]

In 1970 the school moved to Rochester, New York, in a merger that formed the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.[10] 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
Name Tenure
Henry G. Weston 1869–1909
Milton G. Evans 1909–1934
James H. Franklin 1934–1944
Edwin E. Aubrey 1944–1949
Sankey Lee Blanton 1950–1962
Ronald V. Wells 1962–1970

Campus

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

  • Humpstone
  • President's House
  • Pollard House
  • CHEC
  • Evans House
  • Crozer Hall
  • Neisser House
  • Lewis House
  • Vedder House
  • Davis House
  • Sunnyside House
  • Westin House
  • Franklin House

Pearl Hall
Pearl Hall Library

Pearl Hall is a serpentine stone library on the campus which opened on June 4, 1871.[11] 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.[12]

Notable alumni
  • George Barbier, actor
  • J. Pius Barbour, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, Pennsylvania, executive director of the National Baptist Association, editor of the National Baptist Voice, mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., first African-American graduate of Crozer Theological Seminary
  • John Warren Davis, New Jersey politician and federal judge, taught Greek and Hebrew at Crozer Theological Seminary for three years
  • William Augustus Jones Jr., minister and civil rights leader
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights leader[13]
  • Samuel D. Proctor, minister, educator and humanitarian

Notable faculty

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 462–464. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  3. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks (June 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Old Main" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  4. Ashmeade, Henry Graham (1884). History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. p. 432. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  5. 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 10 March 2018.
  6. "About Us - Chester Rural Cemetery". www.chesterruralcemetery.org. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  7. 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 10 March 2018.
  8. "Crozer Theological Society". www.uplandboro.org. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  9. 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 2009-10-06
  10. Dugan, George (1970-05-17), "BAPTIST SEMINARY PLANS TO MERGE; Crozer Theological to Join With School in Rochester", The New York Times, p. 36, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved 2009-10-06
  11. Ashmead, Henry Graham (1884). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H Everts & Co. p. 434. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  12. Jordan, John W. (1914). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 463. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  13. King, Martin Luther; Carson, Clayborne (1998), The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., New York, New York: Warner Books, p. 62, OCLC 39399036, retrieved 2009-10-06
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