CentreCyclopediaOld Main

Campus

  • 1820 - Purchase of seven acres of land from John Cochran for $400

This plot of ground, bounded by today's Main, Walnut, College, and Maple streets, comprised the original campus. It was occasionally refered to in the nineteenth century as the "Old Campus".

  • 1855 - Purchase of eighteen acres of land south of Walnut Street from John Ford for $2,700
  • 1856 - Purchase of house and lot (four acres)from William Dod laying south of Walnut Street for $2,200
  • 1876 - Purchase of house and lot (eight acres) from Speed S. Fry laying south of Walnut Street for $5,912

These three purchases gave the College that part of today's campus laying south of Walnut Street. In the nineteenth century it is sometimes called the "New Campus". In 1862 the College built the first Sayre Library on this land, followed in 1871 by Old Main. The Fry house was used for several years as a fraternity house. It was demolished in 1969.

  • 1960 - Purchase of several pieces of property laying along and behind the north side of Main Street

By 1960 the College had decided the close the women's campus, and move the students to new residence halls on the men's campus. The acquisition of this land, and the demolition of the houses that stood on it, provided the necessary space for the construction of Acheson-Caldwell, Cheek-Evans, and Yerkes Houses, and provided room for today's Hillside House and soccer field.