Saint Peter's University - History

History

The college was chartered in 1872 and enrolled its first students in 1878 at Warren Street, in Jersey City, on the present site of the St. Peter's Preparatory School. In September 1918, the college was closed, along with several other Jesuit colleges and high schools, because of declining enrollment in the face of World War I. Although the war ended only two months after its closing, and despite clamoring from alumni, it took until 1930 to re-open the college. The college was temporarily located on Newark Avenue, before moving in 1936 to its current location on Hudson (now Kennedy) Boulevard, between Montgomery Street and Glenwood Avenue.

Civil rights have had a long tradition at the college. It was first desegregated in 1936, when the college admitted its first black student. The college granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965, and the next year it became coeducational.

The college has made an effort to reach out into the New Jersey suburbs, with a satellite campus at Englewood Cliffs opened in 1975 and an extension at South Amboy's McCarrick High School opened in 2003.

Recent years have seen much construction for the college. In 1975, the college constructed the Yanitelli Recreational Life Center, a sports complex. Beginning with the 1983 acquisition of its first residence hall, the college has converted four apartment buildings to dormitory use, and constructed two brand new dormitories.