Columbian College, 1821-1873
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COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, 1821-1873
This institution was incorporated by an act of Congress, in February, 1821. The buildings, one College edifice, 117 feet by 46, four stories; two dwelling houses for professors, and a Philosophical Hall, were erected in 1820 and 1821. As the National Legislature, the only public body to which it could appeal, has extended no aid but the act of incorporation, the institution has, thus far, relied for resources upon private munificence, and the current income derived from tuition, &c. The Classical Department and the Preparatory School, which is designed to qualify students for admission to the College classes were opened, January, 1822.
FACULTY
Wm. Staughton, D. D. President and Professor of General History, Belles Lettres, Rhetoric, and Moral Philosophy; and of Divinity and Pulpit Eloquence.
Thomas Sewall, M. D. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology.
James M. Staughton, M. D. Professor of Chemistry.
Wm. Ruggles, A. M. Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
Alexander M' Williams, M. D. Professor of Botany.
Alexis Caswell, A. M. Professor of the Learned Languages.
Thomas J. Conant, A. M. Tutor and Librarian.
E. Pattison, A. B. Tutor.
Wm. Heath, A. B. Tutor of the Preparatory School.
Course of Studies, Text-Books, &c.
First year – Græca Majora; Livy, Five Books; Adam’s Roman Antiquities; Buttman’s Greek Grammar; Cambridge Course of Mathematics, comprising – 1st. Lacroix;s Arithmetic; 2d. Euler’s Algebra; 3d. Legendre’s Geometry. Worcester’s Geography; Murray’s English Grammar; writing select portions of the Greek and Latin Classics; Declamation; Revision of a part of the studies required for admission.
Second year - Græca Majora continued; Horace; Legendre’s Geometry, finished; 4th Lacroix’s Algebra; 5th. Analytic Geometry, comprising Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, and Algebra applied to Geometry, particularly to Conic Sections; Hedge’s Logic; Irving on English Composition; Tytler’s General History; S. Morse’s Geography; Gray’s Memoria Technica; Composition and Declamation.
Third Year – Greek continued; Cicero de Oratore, and Cicero de Officiis de Senectute de Amicitia; Analytic Geometry finished; 6th Topography, or the Application of Geometry to Projections, Dialling, Mensuration of Heights and Distances, Navigation, Nautical Astronomy, Surveying, Levelling, &c. Course of Natural Philosophy, compiled by Professor Farrar, Cambridge, N. E.; Kame’s Elements of Criticism; Paley’s Natural Theology; Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric, Chemistry; Natural History; Paley’s Moral Philosohpy; Declamation and Composition.
Fourth Year – Homer’s Iliad; Natural Philosophy, continued; 7th. Differential and integral Calculus; Campbell’s philosophy of Rhetoric; Stewart’s Philosophy of the Mind; Paley’s Evidences; Butler’s Analogy; Vattel on the Laws of Nations; Federalist; Declamation and Composition.
Courses of Lectures are delivered to the higher Classes, by the Professors, upon the various subjects embraced in their professorships.
For admission to the Freshman Class, a student must be able to write Latin correctly, and to read with facility, Cæsar’s Commentaries, Virgil, Salust, Cicero’s Select Orations, the Greek of the New Testament, and the Græca Minora, or Jacob’s Greek Reader; and acquaintance with common Arithmetic, English Grammar, and the Elements of Geography, is expected.
Expenses of a Student
Admission, $10.
Tuition in the College Classes, $50 per ann.
Tuition in the Preparatory School, $32 pr. an.
Library, room-rent, and furniture, $20 pr. an.
Boarding, fuel, lights and Incidental charges, at cost, and generally at $2.65 per week.
Students who do not board in college, have a reduction in their bills.
The whole expense of those who only attend the Preparatory School, during the day, is less than $50 per annum.
The institution holds two sessions, annually: The first commencing the second Wednesday in January, and ending the second
Wednesday in July: the second, on the second Wednesday of September, and ending the third Wednesday of December.
(1826)
This institution, which was incorporated by Congress in 1821, is now in a flourishing condition; the number of its students has been gradually increasing for several years past; and its prospects are brightening on every side. It is beautifully situated on one of the most commanding eminences of the high hills that sweep around the northern portion of the metropolis, and is about half an hour’s walk from the President’s mansion, from the Capitol, from the Smithsonian Institute, from the National Observatory, and from all the public buildings in Washington.
The College building is a fine brick edifice, four stories high, including the basement and attic, with sufficient room to accommodate one hundred students. Besides this there are three other brick buildings, one occupied by the President and family, another by the steward, and the third is used as a hall for the philosophical apparatus belonging to the College, and also by the Preparatory Department.
The view from College Hill is surpassingly beautiful. The student can sit in his room and cast his eye over scenes which are well calculated to arouse the sluggish, to interest the most unobservant, and to excite feelings of energy and patriotism. Three cities, in all their beauty, are spread out before him; the Capitol, the President’s house, and the other public buildings are within his view; the Potomac stretches away before him as far as his vision can reach, and upon its banks are objects of absorbing interest; to the right, away in the distance, may be seen a gently sloping hill reaching to the banks of the river, crowned with trees rising above the surrounding forests – it is Mount Vernon, a place hallowed in the heart of every American, the resting place of Washington.
The sessions of the college have been changed during the last year. The winter session of six months commences on the first Wednesday in October, at the close of which, one week only intervening, commences the summer session, which continues three months. The annual commencement for conferring degrees takes place on the second Wednesday of July; there is then a vacation until the first Wednesday of October. The number of students, including the Preparatory Department, during he last session, was ninety-four.
The students have frequent opportunities of listening to the finest efforts of eloquence in Congress and the Supreme Court, and will have admittance to the public lectures at the Smithsonian Institution, which will embrace a wide and extended range of literary and scientific subjects.
(1852)
Original location, 1820-1884
The original campus was comprised of five buildings on “College Hill,” a parcel of land consisting of approximately 47 acres north of Boundary Street (now known as Florida Avenue) between 14th and 15th Streets. This "rural" campus was about a half-hour walk from the Capitol Building. The main college building, a brick edifice consisting of five floors, 58 rooms and 60 fireplaces, could accommodate 100 students. Three other buildings were occupied by the President and his family, faculty, and a Steward. One additional building was used for classrooms.
Report of Building Committee, Seventh Annual Report of Board
Commenced last spring [1820] building 117' long 17' deep, basement of stone, walls 27 in. thick, first main story of brick walls 22 in. thick, second brick story, walls 18 in. thick, 3rd brick story, walls 14 in. thick. Garret is divided like rest of main stories into rooms with dormant windows and fireplaces, making in the whole building 5 stories inc. basement and garret. Contained in the basement floor was the kitchen-33x17, dining room 42x16, recitation room or chapel 42x16. In the garret was a room with three windows and 2 fireplaces 30x16-temporarily for philosophical apparatus and experiments. One hall on second and one on third each 11x17, designed, temporarily for library. In whole bldg. are 60 fireplaces and 58 rooms, calculated for 100 students. Land, paid for, cost $7,000, building with appurtenances when finished $30,000. Well 60 ft. deep was dug adjacent to building upon "a never failing spring of fine water." It will be ready first of October. For professors, will erect two buildings under one roof separated by brick wall each 25 ft. front 40 ft. deep with garret and basement. Buildings set on cardinal points.
Post Civil War Campus
On April 7, 1866 George Coffin, who attended both the Preparatory School and the College wrote in his diary: “Great improvements are taking place in the College grounds; terraces & the edges of the grass plots have been sodded; trees are being planted; the grass seed, sown sometime ago all over the grounds, is springing up; the walks & drives have been provided with paved gutters on either side; the old gymnasium, during the war used as a dead house, has been pulled down & a new one is being erected; in short everything is undergoing a thorough renovation & improvement.”
Document Information
Images: 1
Photographic Credit: Pictoral Bulletin of GW
Author or Source: The Washington Guide, 1826; Morrison’s Stranger’s Guide to the City of Washington, 1852; Board of Trustees minutes; George Coffin papers
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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