A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770/Chapter 11, 2
The first action the now organized Board of Trustees took was in the direction of securing a habitation for the new school, before entering upon any general plan of tuition; and to this end their thoughts turned to the New Building, as it was called, on Fourth Street near Arch which had been built nine years before for Whitefield's impressive ministrations, and which now could, it was thought, be had on advantageous terms, and as an investment would prove useful and also give an evidence to the community of the sincerity of the design the Trustees were now formulating.
Upon the appointment of the officers, the Minutes next record:
Messrs. William Allen, Abraham Taylor, Charles Willing, Richard Peters, Thomas Leech, and William Shippen are requested to treat with the Trustees of the New Building, about taking a part of it for an Academy, and report the Terms on which it may be had at the next meeting. And are further requested to treat with Workmen, on the expence of erecting what is necessary for that Purpose.[1]
This Committee reported at the next meeting, namely 26 December, 1749, when all the members were present except Messrs. Shippen, Hopkinson, and Zachary. The proposals of the Trustees of the Lot of Ground whereon the House commonly called the New Building is erected for conveying the said Lot and House to the Trustees of the Academy for the uses in those proposals mentioned, were read and agreed to Nemine contradicente, and the offer by Mr. Logan of his lot on Sixth St., before referred to, was courteously declined, and the President requested to acquaint him with this result.
This building has a place in local history of great prominence, and a recital of its beginnings and consummation will be interesting. On a previous page it was noted how Whitefield's great Discourses drew extraordinary audiences to hear them and see him, and of the necessity for a place suitable in size for their accommodation; for although his cure was in Savannah where he had made for himself a double duty in building up also an Orphanage, yet Philadelphia was the pivotal point of his great missionary tours, and this influential community drew more of his attention and labors than any other in the colonies outside of Savannah. As his adherents were not drawn from the upper classes, who merely tolerated if they did not oppose him, we find that the four of the former who took title in trust to the property on Fourth Street, were Edmund Woolly, carpenter, John Coats, brickmaker, John Howell, mariner, and William Price, carpenter. The purchase was made 15 September, 1740, from Jonathan Price and Wife, of the lot of ground, one hundred feet below Arch Street, with a front of one hundred and fifty feet on Fourth, opposite the old Friends Burying Ground, extending westward in depth one hundred and ninety-eight feet to the Burying Ground of Christ Church, which had been opened in 1719. On 14 November following these four made assignment of the property in trust to Rev. Mr. George White-field, of the province of Georgia, Clerk; William Seward, of London, Esquire; John Stephen Benezet, of Philadelphia, Merchant; Thomas Noble, of New York, Merchant; Samuel Hazard, of New York, Merchant; Robert Eastburn, of Philadelphia, Blacksmith; James Read, of Philadelphia, Gentleman; Edward Evans, of Philadelphia, Cordwainer; and Charles Brockden, of Philadelphia, Gentleman; for the purposes as expressed in the following Preamble:
Whereas, a considerable number of Persons of different denominations in Religion had united their endeavours to erect a large building upon the land above described intending that the same should be appointed to the use of a Charity School for the instruction of poor children gratis in useful literature and of the Christian religion, and also that the same should be used as a House of Publick Worship. And that it was agreed that the use of the said Building should be under the direction of certain Trustees * * * which Trustees before named and thereafter to be chosen were from time to time to appoint fit and able school masters and school mistresses for the service of the said school and introduce such Protestant Ministers to Preach the Gospel in the said house as they should judge to be sound in their Principles, zealous and faithful in the discharge of their duty and acquainted with the Religion of the Heart and experimental piety without any regard to those distinctions or different sentiments in lesser matters which have to the scandal of religion unhappily divided real Christians.
The building, elsewhere described, was erected about midway of the lot facing eastward, and though but partially completed, even before the roof was completed, Whitefield had gathered his first congregation in it five days before the conveyance. Franklin gave a very liberal construction to this liberty of preaching, in writing of it in after years, for he describes the "design in building not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service;"[2] but Whitefield and Tennent would hardly have extended their liberality to even a Mufti.
Franklin referring again to the New Building and the obligations resting on the property, which latter formed the occasion for the Trustees of the Academy to consider the expediency of securing it, writes:
The enthusiasm which existed when the house was built had long since abated, and its trustees had not been able to procure fresh contributions for paying the ground rent, and discharging some other debts the building had occasion'd, which embarrass'd them greatly.[3] Of the four original trustees, one of each sect was appointed, viz: Church of England man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, who in case of vacancy by death, were to fill it by election from among the contributors. The Moravian happened not to please his colleagues, and on his death they resolved to have no other of that sect The difficulty then was, how to avoid having two of some other sect, by means of the new choice. Several persons were named, and for that reason not agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the observation that I was merely an honest man, and of no sect at all, which prevailed with them to choose me. * * * Being now a member of both boards of trustees, that for the building, and that for the academy, I had a good opportunity of negotiating with both, and brought them finally to an agreement, by which the trustees for the building were to cede it to those of the academy; the latter undertaking to discharge the debt, to keep for ever open in the building a large hall for occasional preachers, according to the original intention, and maintain a free school for the instruction of poor children. Writings were accordingly drawn; and, on paying the debts, the trustees of the academy were put in possession of the premises; and, by dividing the great and lofty hall into stories and different rooms above and below for the several schools, and purchasing some additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our purpose, and the scholars removed into the building. The whole care and trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchasing materials, and superintending the work, fell upon me; and I went through it the more cheerfully, as it did not then interfere with my private business.
The question of an earlier date for the foundation of the University is said to arise from the purchase by the Trustees in 1749 of this incomplete building, which was erected by subscriptions procured in good faith in preceding years for the maintenance therein of a certain religious preaching as well also of a Charity School; and a gain of nine years in the University, existence is thus affirmed, inasmuch as the former enterprise was projected in 1740, and the building then shortly begun was designed to further these two objects. The first public claim in our own day of this earlier date is sanctioned by its publication in the University Catalogue of 1893–4. The year in which free preaching and a free school were thus projected, need not here be considered, particularly as the operations of the latter feature, a free school, were not consummated for ten years and more after, and then only under the efforts of the assignees, though the preaching privilege was at once exercised—even before the roof was on. The Academy Trustees in thus taking title to the premises obligated themselves "to discharge the debt, to keep forever open in the building a large hall for occasional preachers * * * and maintain a free school for the instruction of poor children." The trustees of 1749 having erected the building by subscriptions gathered upon these pledges, could not but seek from their assignees the condition that these objects be carried out in due time, which the Academy Trustees were in no wise loth to do, as these would not only prove attractions to the new movement but give them speedy possession of the needed edifice; and they, in continuing good faith to the original subscribers, under this assignment, eventually started and maintained the free school as one of the prominent features of their scheme of education, although some delay prevented their consummation of this until as late as September, 1751. Dr Peters in his Sermon on Education Wherein Some Account is given of the Academy, Preach'd at the Opening thereof, 7 January, 1750–51, says:
It became a matter of debate where to place the Academy, and many arguments were offered for some village in the country as best favouring the morals of the youth * * * but when it came to be considered that it would take a large sum to erect proper buildings at a distance from the city, that the circumstances of many of the citizens would not admit of a distant place on account of the expense, that the trustees were men of business who could not be absent from their habitations without much inconvenience, * * * * it was thought proper to fix it somewhere within the city; and the more so, when the minds of the trustees of the building, where we are now assembled, came to be imparted. These thoughtful persons had been for some years sensible that this building was not put to its original use, nor was it in their power to set forward a charity school, which was also a part of the first design, and that it was more in the power of the trustees of the Academy than in others to do it; they therefore made an offer to transfer their right in it to the use of the Academy; provided the debts which remained unpaid, might be discharged and the arrears of rent paid off. This was thankfully accepted, and a conveyance was executed.
The Trustees had thus taken over an encumbered and incomplete building from an insolvent association, which had also failed in its free schooling project, obligating themselves in part consideration to carry forward its free preaching and educational features. Had they accepted Mr. Logan's offer of his Sixth street lot, and utilized it by building thereon, no thought would have arisen for antedating their own creation of 1749. They accepted the tender of the Fourth street premises, even in its incompletenesss, not only for greater convenience in location, but also to spare them the further loss of time which the erection of a building on the Logan lot would have entailed; but they did not, indeed could not, assume that by taking title thereto on 1 February, 1750, with what may be entitled its philanthropic liens, they would thus add more years to their associated life. The thought of an earlier date than 1749 for their beginnings was never entertained by them or by the five generations succeeding, and only recently arose to exercise the pleasing thought of a more extended existence by the term of nine years.
Neither Dr. Peters nor any of his associates could have entertained such a thought, for in the paragraph of the Sermon immediately preceding the one above quoted, he records the birth, which met with no contradiction by any cotemporary, as of 1749, as follows:
Nor should it be concealed, that this present institution, tho' one of those kind which generally have for their Founders, sovereign Princes, or branches of Royal Families, or Nobles of the first rank and dignity, owes likewise its being to a sett of private Men, who from the Necessity of such a Seminary of learning set themselves at the close of the war, seriously to think about one * * * At last they agreed on the general heads and confident of the continuance of the publick spirit of their fellow citizens, they ventured to publish their Proposals relating to the education of youth in this province. * * * After these were found to give general satisfaction, twenty-four Trustees, without regard to differences in religious persuasions, were appointed to carry them into execution: Merchants, Artificers, some likewise of the learned professions. * * * Thus successful, it became a matter of debate where to place the Academy, &c., &c., &c.
In announcing in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 2 August, 1750, the contribution of the City of Philadelphia, Franklin speaks of this as for the encouragement and support of the Academy and of the Charity School which the Trustees of the Academy have likewise undertaken to open in this city, for instructing poor children, &c., &c.
Dr Smith wrote in June, 1753:
A few private Gentlemen of this city have in the Space of two or three years, projected, begun, and carried to surprising Perfection, a very noble Institution, &c., &c.
And in his Eulogium on Franklin in 1791: the next institution in the foundation of which he was the principal agent, was the academy and charitable school of the City of Philadelphia; the plan of which he drew up and published in the year 1749.
Indeed in his more formal statement to the Assembly in 1788, made in his Address to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in the case of the violated charter of the College, &c., of Pennsylvania, presented to the Assembly 12 March, 1788, he recites:
The College of Philadelphia was a private corporation similar to the Exeter College in Oxford; it had its foundation in the year 1749, from proposals made and published by that great friend of learning, Dr Franklin, with whom were associated the following gentlemen, * * * twenty-four in the whole; and their chief funds were of their own private subscriptions for a number of years, aided by the voluntary benevolence of many of their fellow citizens; it was first stiled an Academy; and before it had a charter, was governed by certain fundamental constitutions agreed upon by the gentlemen above named as a voluntary society of founders.
Robert Proud, when writing his History a few years later, recorded the same date for the beginning of the institution. This date was also maintained by the late Provost Stillé in his Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D., 1869, "my great predecessor." This was, further, officially held down to the printed Catalogue of the University for 1892–3, where the narrative reads:
A pamphlet called Proposals Relative to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania written in 1749 by Dr Franklin, led to an association by certain citizens of Philadelphia for the purpose of founding a School on the lines suggested by that wise counsellor.
This was confirmed in the Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College, 1749–1893, published in 1894 by the Society of the Alumni. The General Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of the Department of Arts, published in 1849, also by the Society of the Alumni, had recited "from 1749 to 1849." But in the Catalogue for 1893–4 appears the earlier birth-date in the Historical Sketch, viz.:
A pamphlet called Proposals Relative to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, written in 1749 by Dr Franklin, led to an association by certain citizens of Philadelphia, for the purpose of raising to the dignity of an Academy the Charitable School which had been established in 1740, and which was then struggling under a debt upon the building erected for its use and the accommodation of the celebrated preacher Whitefield.
And for the first time the cover of this Catalogue bore the legend, and claimed the earlier date, "Founded 1740";—for which there appears no warrant in the long and unbroken Annals of the University. It is certain that Franklin and Peters had themselves no thought of their building in 1749 "upon another man's foundation."
On the first of February, 1750, the "Trustees of the Academy met at Roberts's Coffee House, except James Logan, Tench Francis, and Thomas Hopkinson, Esquires;" when "the Trustees of the New Building being present, joined in directing Edmund Woolly and John Coats to convey, and they accordingly did convey the said Building Lot of ground and Appurtenances to the Trustees of the Academy, in consideration of the sum of Seven hundred seventy and five pounds eighteen shillings and eleven pence and three farthings to them in hand then paid by the Treasurer for order of the Trustees for discharging the debts and incumbrances of the said Building." And to meet this purchase the Trustees "agreed unanimously to borrow Eight hundred pounds of the Treasurers of the Lottery, which was accordingly done and bond given by all the Trustees for repayment of the same with interest; which is to be done out of the Stock of the Academy, as it shall arise."
This conveyance of 1 February, 1750, recites the death of Howell and Price, the associates of Woolly and Coats; and that William Seward and Thomas Noble being since deceased, the survivors of the Cestui que trust or a majority of them, namely, Benezet, Hazard, Eastburn, Read and Evans agree to Woolly and Coats assignment and sale. This conditioned that the Trustees should place, erect, found, establish, or keep a house or place of public worship, and also one free school for the instructing teaching and education of poor children or scholars within two years from the date of the conveyance; and likewise from time to time introduce such preacher or preachers whom they shall judge qualified as recited in the former indenture is expressed to preach and teach the word of God occasionally in the said place of publick worship but yet so that no particular sect be fixed there as a settled congregation and shall at all reasonable times permit and suffer in his reasonable turn any regular Minister of the Gospel to preach in the House or place on the premises which shall be set apart for Publick Worship who hath signed or hereafter shall sign certain articles of religion a copy whereof is hereto annexed and whom they shall moreover judge to be otherwise duly qualified as aforesaid and particularly shall permit the free and uninterrupted use of the said Place of Worship to the said Revd. Mr George Whitefield whenever he shall happen to be in this city and desire to preach therein.
A meeting of the Trustees was held the following day to remove the alarm which some of Mr. Gilbert Tennent's friends raised, fearing that they might be forbidden the use of the New Building for his ministrations.
It being represented to the Trustees that previous to the conveyance of the New Building to them, Expectations were given to the Revd. Mr. Gilbert Tennent and his congregation that they should be permitted without interruption to continue the exercise of Divine Service on the Lord's Day in that part of the New Building that shall be set off for public worship until they shall be provided with an House of their own for that purpose which they are now about to erect with all convenient expedition. The Trustees esteeming the said Mr Tennent to be duly qualified according to the deed of Trust, and considering that the said Congregation is at present without a Meeting House, do concede and grant to him and them the free and uninterrupted use of the said Place of Worship on the Lord's Day and other stated times of Meeting, free of Rent (excepting only when the Revd. Mr. Whitefield shall be present and desire to use the same) from this time until their intended New Meeting House shall be fit to accommodate them, provided the same be ready to receive them within three years now next ensuing. [And under directions], a copy of the same was accordingly made and signed by the President by order of the Trustees and delivered to Mr. Samuel Hazard for Mr Tennent.
This was the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church who were then building their large edifice on the North West corner of Arch and Third Streets, which however was not completed for their use until May, 1752.
The "certain articles of religion, a copy whereof is hereto annexed," above referred to, could be justly named the White-field Confession of Faith, and are duly recorded at length in Deed Book Letter A, No. 5, page 168, the only instance known of the Recorder of Deeds finding room in his volumes for the entry of a creed. The final sentence alone need be quoted here, as epitomizing its chief articles:
We do also give our assent and consent to the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 17th articles of the Church of England as explained by the Calvinists in their Litteral and grammatical sence without any equivocation whatsoever. We mention these in particular because they are a summary of the foregoing articles. We believe all that are sound in faith agree in these whatever other points they may differ in.
This Deed and the Articles of 1 February were made the subject of an entry in the Minutes of 25 June, 1750, namely, "Ordered, That the Treasurer pay to John Moland, Esqr., Twenty Pounds for his services in framing the conveyance of the New Building to the Trustees of the Academy."
The Trustees individually subscribed, as we have seen, for a term of three years sums aggregating annually Three Hundred and Forty-three pounds, saving the aged Logan, whose tender of a lot of ground probably took the place of a cash subscription. William Allen's subscription was the largest, amounting to £75. annually; the next in amount were those of Masters, Zachary, and Turner, for £20. each, Lawrence, M'Call, Willing, Taylor, Thomas Bond, and Plumsted, for £15. each, and Inglis, Francis, Franklin, Shippen, Strettell, Phineas Bond, Peters, Hopkinson, Maddox, and Coleman for £10. each, and Leech, Syng, and White £6. each. Governor Hamilton, through Mr. Peters, added his annual subscription of £50. Among the general subscribers there are found with varying sums, the names of John Baynton, Daniel Benezet, William and Ann Bingham, William Blair, Richard Brockden, James Burd, Thomas Burgess, Captain John Coxe, William Cradock, Jacob Duché, Robert Greenway, Lawrence Growden, David Hall, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Hazard, Samuel Hasell, Edwards Hicks, Richard Hill, Andrew Hodge, James and William Humphreys, Abel James, Margaret Jeykill, Lynford Lardner, John and Thomas Laurence, jr., Archibald M'Call, David McIlvaine, Charles and Reese Meredith, Evan Morgan, Samuel Neaves, John Ord, Stephen Paschall, James Pemberton, Samuel Read, John Ross, Joseph Saunders, John Searle, Edward Shippen, Joseph Sims, Attwood Shute, Peter Sonmans, Amos and John Strettell, James Trotter, John Wallace, Townsend White, John Wilcocks, John Yeates; a representative constituency, evidencing the sympathy of all portions of the community in the new enterprise, and resulting in a first year's subscription of £322.8. But the contributions were not confined to home sources, for Mess. David Barclay & Sons of London were contributors: it was recorded in the minutes of 25 June, 1750, "that Mr. Joseph Turner acquainted the members that they had generously presented the Academy with the sum of One Hundred Pounds Sterling Money, which they had ordered him to pay." Publicity was given to this by Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 2 August, 1750:
We hear that an eminent merchant of London hath generously given a Hundred Pounds to the Academy now erecting in this City, for the Education of Youth, which has accordingly been paid into the Hands of the Trustees by his Correspondent here.
But the minutes do not record the gift of the City of Philadelphia, which was the first tie that bound the corporation to what was to become its great institution. The Treasurer in his journal records the receipt on 20 August, 1750, from Samuel Hasell, Esq., the sum given by the Corporation towards finishing the Building, £200. [And Franklin joyfully informs the readers of the Pennsylvania Gazette of it on 2 August, 1750:] Tuesday last, the Mayor and Commonalty of this City met, and voted a Sum of Two Hundred Pounds to be paid down, and One Hundred Pounds a year, for the Encouragement and Support of the Academy and of the Charity School which the Trustees of the Academy have likewise undertaken to open in this city, for instructing poor children in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic: The Corporation only reserving a liberty of nominating yearly one scholar out of those that shall be taught in the Charity School, to be received into the Academy, and educated there gratis.
The subject had been presented to the Council on 30 July, 1750, by the Recorder, William Allen, a Trustee, who proposed that it might be considered. Whether this Design for the advancement of Learning, be not worthy of some encouragement from this Board as their circumstances may very well afford it. * * * It appearing to be a Matter of Consequence, and but a small number of the Members now present, [it was referred to a special Meeting to be called for] Tomorrow at four o'clock in the Afternoon to consider of the proposal.
At the Common Council held next day, of those present the Mayor, the Recorder, three of the Aldermen, and eight of the "Common Council Men," were Trustees, viz: Lawrence, Allen, Turner, Strettell, Plumsted, Francis, Franklin, M'Call, Inglis, Shippen, Thomas Bond, Hopkinson and Coleman; "And a Paper containing an Account of what is already done by the Trustees of the Academy, and what Advantages are expected from that Undertaking being laid before the Board was read." This had been prepared by Franklin and is spread at length upon the minutes; it is given elsewhere. It recites: The Trustees of the Academy have already laid out near £800. in the Purchase of the Building, and will probably expend near as much more in fitting up Rooms for the Schools, and furnishing them with proper Books and Instruments for the Instruction of Youth. The greatest Part of the Money paid and to be paid is subscribed by the Trustees themselves, and advanced by them; many of whom have no children of their own to educate, but act from a view to the Public Good, without regard to sect or party. * * * The Benefits expected from this Institution are: That the youth of Pennsylvania may have an opportunity of receiving a good Education at home, and be under no necessity of going abroad for it. * * * That a Number of our Natives will hereby be qualified to be our Magistracies, and execute other public offices of Trust, with Reputation to themselves and Country; there being at present great want of Persons so qualified in the several counties of this Province. And this is the more necessary now to be provided for by the English here, as vast numbers of Foreigners are yearly imported among us, totally ignorant of our Laws, Customs and Language. That a Number of the poorer Sort will hereby be qualified to act as Schoolmasters in the Country, to teach Children Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and the Grammar of their Mother Tongue; * * * the Country suffering at present very much for want of good School masters. * * * It is thought that a good Academy erected in Philadelphia, a healthy place where Provisions are plenty, situated in the Center of the Colonies, may draw Numbers of Students from the neighboring Provinces, who must spend considerable Sums yearly among us, in Payment for their Lodging, Diet, Apparel, &c.* * * Numbers of people have already generously subscribed considerable sums to carry on this Undertaking; but others, well disposed, are somewhat discouraged from contributing, by an Apprehension, lest when the first Subscriptions are expended, the Design should drop. The great Expence of such a work is in the Beginning. * * * Some Assistance from the Corporation is immediately wanted and hoped for * * * it will greatly strengthen the Hands of all concerned, and be a means of Establishing this good work and continuing the good Effects of it down to an late Posterity. * * * The Board having weighed the great Usefulness of this Design, after several Propositions heard and debated, agreed that a Sum of Money by this Board and paid down towards compleating the Building which the Trustees have purchased, and are now fitting up for the Purpose; and likewise, that a sum or sums be given yearly by this Board, for five years to come, towards the support and Maintenance of the Schools under the direction of the said Trustees,
with the result as announced by Franklin in the next issue of his Gazette. Thomas Lawrence's Mayoralty terminated the following October, and he was succeeded by William Plumsted; and his year's salary he gave to the Academy, "which Proposal was approved by a great Majority at a Common Council" held 21 March, 1751; and Mr. Coleman enters the receipt "from Samuel Hassell, Esq., Treasurer to the Corporation, being presented by Thomas Lawrence, Esqr., late Mayor of this City (with the Approbation of the Common Council) in lieu of giving a Mayor's Feast the sum of £100;" and another Trustee makes, in the entry of the same date, the Academy the beneficiary of his civil fees, viz: "from William Allen, Esq, late Recorder, being his half year's Salary as Recorder he gives £12.10."
But with all the subscriptions and benefactions, the loan from the Philadelphia Lottery of Eight Hundred Pounds authorised by the Trustees at their third meeting was quite necessary, as the building required considerable alterations, besides the needed school outfit much of which would have to be imported. In twelve months there were expended in the New Building upwards of £598, to make it conform to their proposed requirements. This includes an item on 21 August, 1750, "paid for Provisions at second raising £4.4.11;" which was doubtless a wholesome and needful expenditure; but when the good Treasurer records in all gravity, 2 May, "given the Bricklayers to drink 2/3," and the same date "given ditto for drink 7/6," we are led from the object of the expenditure to consider what may be in grammatical correctness designed for a distinction in the two entries by the use of a different preposition. The Bricklayers were a favored crew, for they received at this "second Raising," "for drink, 15s." However, the Carpenters were later remembered, as on 31 October they were paid for drink 7/6, on 7 December, 10s, and on 3 January again 7/6. As Franklin had charge of the repairs and alterations in the Building and rendered exact accounts of every item expended to his worthy friend the Treasurer, which the latter faithfully records, he must have found local custom too strong to resist, and doubtless with resignation submitted and with a protest charged the idle expenditure to the Academy funds. These are the little pictures which display to us customs of time and place.[4]
An offer from Mr. Samuel Hazard made to the Trustees and reported to them at the meeting of 10 November, 1750, to sell them two lots, one on each side of the Academy lot, subject to Ground Rents, for the sum of three hundred pounds, was accepted. One of these was twenty-five feet on Fourth Street by one hundred and thirty-nine feet eight inches adjoining the Academy lot on the north, and the other thirty-four feet by one hundred and forty feet adjoining on the south. This gave the Trustees a frontage of two hundred and nine feet on Fourth Street. The first payment of £155 was made on 27 February, and the balance of £145 on 23 April following. This increase of Real Estate, which it will be seen was added to in 1753, by absorbing all the ground Northward to Arch Street, was simply an indication on the part of those interested that they were planting for the future an institution of far reaching capabilities and usefulness; the sagacity exhibited in these purchases was equalled only by the faith held by these gentlemen in the great promises of their Academy and Charity School.
Franklin's summary of the work now begun must be told by his own narrative, which cannot be equalled in another's language. To Jared Eliot he is writing on 13 February, 1750–51,[5] and after giving "his thoughts about the northeast storms beginning to leeward," and an account of his visit to Schuyler's copper mines in New Jersey the previous Autumn, he proceeds,
It will be agreeable to you to hear, that our subscription goes on with great success, and we suppose will exceed five thousand pounds of our currency. We have bought for the Academy the house that was built for itinerant preaching, which stands on a large lot of ground capable of receiving more buildings to lodge the scholars, if it should come to be a regular college. The house is one hundred feet long and seventy wide, built of brick, very strong, and sufficiently high for three lofty stories. I suppose the building did not cost less than two thousand pounds; but we bought it for seven hundred seventy five pounds, eighteen shillings, eleven pence, and three farthings; though it will cost us three and perhaps four hundred more to make the partitions and floors, and fit up the rooms. I send you enclosed a copy of our present Constitutions but we expect a charter from our Proprietaries this summer, when they may probably receive considerable alterations.
With what gratification must he have written to Mr Eliot on 12 September following "Our Academy flourishes beyond expectation. We have now above one hundred scholars, and the number is daily increasing."[6]
This large building, originally designed for one large audience room, or "great and lofty hall" as Franklin describes it, with two rows of windows as we see in many of our older churches, was divided into two stories, and rearranged substantially as we of our generation knew it before its complete destruction in 1844. The well known cuts of it in local histories afford a correct exterior view. The entrance opened into a large hall, on either side large class rooms, that to the north being occupied by the Charity School. The Western half of the first floor was occupied by the large school room, about ninety by thirty-five feet, in the centre of which was a platform whereon all the teachers from the unhappy Beveridge to the robust Crawford wielded their authority, from which however the latter would often descend to try his rattan on some heedless pupil who perchance had little thought then of commemorating the worthy Dominie in these pages. The hall here turned to the South between the large room and the front class room, and then to the West, opening out into the play ground, about one hundred feet by fifty, where many a happy half hour was spent during recess, and where Alexander Graydon, the new pupil, perhaps earned his first laurels in the art of self defense.[7] We moderns when relaxing thus in the midst of school hours, had little thought of the worthy and venerable associations which clustered around the building; nor were John Beveridge's pupils a century before us any more mindful of these, when on a concerted signal a few hiding in the play ground closed the heavy wooden shutters to darken the room on his entrance, affording to the majority remaining within the fun of raising a Bedlam, from which the unlucky professor could only find refuge under a school form and escape from their missiles of books and rulers.[8] In this side hall arose a heavy stair case with a solid balustrade which had stood the racket of hundreds of lads of all sizes and weights, and which on a turn opened into a large upper hall covering the width of the building and about ninety feet of its length. Across the south end, over the stairway, was a gallery, and the rostrum was against the north wall. Here were held the Commencements and all the public exercises, and on Sundays Divine service by Whitefield when he was in the city, by Dr Tennent with his new congregation, and by others who could subscribe the Creed recited in the deed of conveyance. Here we may picture Mr. Smith's first display of his pupils' oratorical accomplishments in the Christmas holidays of 1756 when they performed the Masque of Alfred, which they repeated the following spring before sundry of the colonial Governors then visiting Philadelphia. A space of perhaps eighty feet or more remained between the building and Fourth Street, the street being shut off by a high wall, in which was a modest gate. This front campus was devoted solely to the solemn entrance or the joyful exit of the pupils, and no play or pranks were here permitted. And even in our day there sat just outside of the gate the descendant of the old dame of Gabriel Thomas' time, vending "on any day in the week, tarts, pies, cakes, &c" which certainly were toothsome if not wholesome.
Herein continued the operations of the College and University until the purchase a half century later of the premises on Ninth Street, between Market and Chestnut Streets, whither they moved in 1802, and which is now succeeded by the United States Post Office; and by a happy coincidence there stands on the latter's front pavement the bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin, recently erected there to the memory of the great colonial Postmaster General, appointed in 1753, who was as well the Founder of the University, from which the Government holds its present title.
- ↑ Between these first two meetings of the Board Franklin's friend Godfrey had died, and he thus notices his death in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 19 December, 1749: "Last week died here Mr. Thomas Godfrey, who had an uncommon Genius for all kinds of Mathematical Learning, with which he was extremely well acquainted. He invented the New Reflecting Quadrant used in Navigation."
- ↑ Bigelow, i. 207.
- ↑ Ibid. i. 226.
- ↑ In his essay on the Vice of Drunkenness in the New England Courant which Franklin had written more than twenty-five years before, he said: "I doubt not but moderate Drinking has been improved for the Diffusion of Knowledge among the ingenious Part of Mankind who want the Talent of a ready utterance, in order to discover the Conceptions of their Minds in an entertaining and intelligible Manner." Did he now recall this sentiment in the tipple to these workmen?
- ↑ Bigelow, ii. 164.
- ↑ Bigelow, ii. 235, and he adds "We have excellent masters at present; and as we give pretty good salaries, I hope we shall always be able to procure such. We pay the Rector, who teaches Latin and Greek, per annum....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
£, 200 The English master....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................£, 150 The Mathematical professor....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................£, 125 Three assistant teachers, each £, 60....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................£, 180 - ↑ Memoirs of a Life, &c. Alexander Graydon, 28.
- ↑ Ibid, p. 35.