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Bentley Hall, Allegheny College |
Nestled away at the top of the hill overlooking Meadville,
Pennsylvania is
Allegheny College which
holds the title of 32nd oldest in the United States, having just
celebrated it’s
200th birthday in 2015. The
college came into being when
Timothy
Alden, a Harvard graduate, traveled to Meadville with hopes of founding an
institution of higher education. He, along with other gentlemen of the town, took
on the momentous effort of securing the school’s first trustees and petitioning
the state for a charter for their institution. Alden would become the first
president, as well as professor of Oriental Languages and Ecclesiastical
History. The first freshman class was admitted on July 4, 1816, although at
this point the college only really existed in name, as there was no set
building for another four years.
Bentley Hall, the school’s
oldest and most iconic building, was not built until 1820. By this time, a
number of major contributions had been made to the school allowing the project
to be possible, including a generous land grant by Samuel Lord Esq. (part of
the original estate connected to the
Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum). From
these humble beginnings came a school that soon flourished and served to
educate a number famous faces from the last two centuries.