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West Chester University

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1869, with many additions. Roughly bounded by S. High, Sharpless, and S. New sts. and Rosedale Ave.
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

West Chester University had its beginnings as a local academy in 1812, became a state normal school in 1870, and a teachers’ college in 1920. In 1869, Addison Hutton designed the first building for the college, a mansard-roofed Second Empire pile not unlike John McArthur Jr.'s Pardee Hall at Lafayette College ( NO12.1). Its demolition just after its centennial in 1971 for a flood of third-rate dormitories and classroom buildings funded by Pennsylvania's General State Authority marked the beginning of historical awareness on campus. A few earlier buildings give some historic context to the college.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Recitation Hall
George Philips Memorial Building
Old Library
Church of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
First Baptist Church

Citation

George E. Thomas, "West Chester University", [West Chester, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-CH20.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 247-247.

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