Yonder Beautiful and Stately College Edifice : A History of Pennsylvania Hall (Old Dorm), Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Abstract

On January 21, 1834 Thaddeus Stevens, a freshman member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Adams County, rose in that body to speak in favor of a bill appropriating a sum of money to the new college at Gettysburg in whose fortunes he had become deeply interested. After answering the arguments of his colleague from Adams County, who had just spoken against the bill, Stevens undertook to explain in a few words the predicament in which the fledgling college found itself: It has been chartered two years ; and organized about eighteen months. It has now ninety-eight students, without a house to put them in ; a library or an apparatus. Thanks to the efforts of Thaddeus Stevens, and many others, the bill was passed, and the house that was needed was soon built. It is still standing and in use today. Its story over more than 130 years is the central theme of the account which follows. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1057/thumbnail.jp