Saint Joseph's University - History

History

As far back as 1741, a Jesuit College in Philadelphia had been proposed and planned by Rev. Joseph Greaton, S.J., the first resident pastor of Saint Joseph's Church. The suppression of the Jesuits (1773–1814) and lack of people and money delayed for over a hundred years the realization of Greaton's plans.

Credit for founding the college is given to Rev. Felix Barbelin, S.J., who served as its first president. Barbelin and four other Jesuits formed the first faculty of Saint Joseph's College. On the morning of September 15, 1851, some 32 young men gathered in the courtyard outside Old St. Joseph's Church, located in Willing's Alley off Walnut and Fourth Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania one block from Independence Hall. After attending High Mass and reciting the Veni Creator in the church, these men were assigned to their classes in a building adjacent to the church.

Before the end of the first academic year in 1851, the enrollment rose from fewer than 40 students to 98. In the following year, the college received its charter of incorporation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the enrollment grew to 126 students. The fledgling college soon outgrew an increasingly noisy and commercialized location on Willing’s Alley. The college moved into a building at 1234 Filbert Street in Philadelphia, then a prosperous residential neighborhood near the future site of City Hall. In 1889, Saint Joseph’s inaugurated its third site at 17th and Stiles Streets in North Philadelphia, in the heart of Philadelphia’s booming industrial zone. In 1927, in recognition of population shifts toward the western part of the city and into the western suburbs, the college moved to its current location, 54th and City Avenue, at the entrance to Philadelphia’s fashionable Main Line. After World War II, Saint Joseph’s began to acquire properties across City Avenue on the Main Line itself, propelling the institution physically as well as culturally into the suburbs proper.

In fall 1970, the undergraduate day college opened its doors to women. Saint Joseph's was recognized as a university by the Secretary of Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on July 24, 1978. The corporate charter was formally changed to reflect university status on December 27, 1978.

Saint Joseph's University is technically without a President, with current Senior Vice President John Smithson currently serving as interim President of the University. Smithson took on the role when the University's 26th President, Rev. Timothy R. Lannon, S.J., stepped down to assume the Presidency at his alma mater, Creighton University. On January 24, 2011, the Board of Trustees elected Rev. Joseph M. O'Keefe, S.J. as the 27th President of the University, but O'Keefe later had to step down, citing health issues; the University subsequently selected Smithson, a former chair of the Board of Trustees, to serve as Interim President and directed its efforts to a Jesuit-only search. Under Smithson, the University began taking steps to complete its Plan 2020: Gateway to the Future.

On November 10, 2011, the University's Board of Trustees announced that it had selected Rev. C. Kevin Gillespie, S.J., Associate Provost of University Centers at Loyola University Chicago, as the 27th President of the University. Gillespie is a member of the University's Class of 1972 and has served as a trustee since 2006. Gillespie is only the second President to also be an alumnus of the University, the first was Rev. Cornelius Gillespie, S.J., who served from 1900–1907 and again from 1908-1909. Gillespie was formally presented at a reception on November 11, 2011, and formally assumed the Presidency on July 1, 2012. Gillespie was inaugurated as President on October 12, 2012.