THE WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
The very name is suggestive of history, for when the
institution was created by the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in 1825, the site of Pittsburgh was con-
sidered western. Pittsburgh did not secure this institution
without a struggle. There was a year-long controversy as
to its site, rival claims of various Ohio and Indiana towns,
some of them now long forgotten, being urged as against
“Alleghenytown,” then a village of seven hundred souls.
The Assembly appointed a board of five commissioners to
determine this site, and few now know that first of this group
was General Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee.
The first session formally opened on November 16, 1827,
the instructors of this class of four being the Rev. Elisha P.
Swift and the Rev. Joseph Stockton, both pioneer clergymen
of the first rank. Dr. Stockton had been principal of the
old Pittsburgh Academy, now the University of Pittsburgh.
The centennial anniversary was observed with much cere-
mony on November 16, 1927.
The first building was erected in 1831 on what is now
known as Monument Hill. This building was completely
destroyed by fire on January 23, 1854. The second building,
erected on Ridge Avenue facing West Park in 18355, and
known as ‘‘Seminary Hall,” was partially destroyed by fire
in 1887 and immediately repaired. In 1914 this building
was demolished to be replaced by a large modern group, two
wings of which were dedicated May 4, 1916. Architecturally
the new buildings are English Collegiate Gothic, and struc-
turally they are steel frame and fireproof. These two wings
contain six class rooms, an office, a large faculty and directors
room, a beautiful reading room 38 x 88 feet, a librarian’s
office, a seminar room for private study, and a stack room
capable of holding 160,000 volumes. For its size, it is ap
equipment second to none in the country.
The first dormitory was erected in 1859 and was made
possible by the generosity of Mrs. Hetty E. Beatty, and
known as Beatty Hall. This structure becoming inadequate
by 1877, the Rev. C. C. Beatty furnished funds for a new
dormitory, which was known as Memorial Hall, as Dr.
