College Heritage
Our History
Founded in 1899, Elizabethtown College is a centennial college, one of dozens founded in the 19th century by churches or church members for the educational advancement of their denominations. Elizabethtown’s heritage lies with the Church of the Brethren, one of three historic peace churches, along with the Quakers and Mennonites.
During its first two decades, the College functioned both as a college and an academy for high-school-age students to bolster its program in teacher training. By the end of the 1920s, Elizabethtown enrolled 180 full-time students and 300 part-time students in 11 major programs: history, English, modern languages, business, mathematics, education, sociology, biology, chemistry, music, and Bible studies.
Student life outside the classroom soon blossomed: a literary society was formed in 1920; the Alma Mater was composed by Jennie Via for a quartet of her music students; the Etonian yearbook was first published in 1922; the men’s and women’s intercollegiate debating society began in 1925; a small student orchestra appeared in 1927; men’s and women’s basketball and men’s baseball teams began competing toward the end of the decade; and the Sock & Buskin drama club’s first performance was produced in 1930.
By 1948, the College’s advancement was recognized by accreditation in the Middle States Association and, in the following year, by acceptance in the American Council of Education. In 1950, Elizabethtown embarked on an ambitious fund-raising program to increase the endowment and build much-needed facilities to accommodate a rapidly expanding student body, which by 1958, had grown to almost 800. The library was moved from the first floor of Rider Hall to Zug Memorial Library, which was completed in 1950. In the following two decades, the College dedicated 10 new buildings, including several residence halls, Baugher Student Center, Nicarry Hall, and Thompson Gymnasium.
In the past five decades, Elizabethtown College has continued its spectacular growth. Today, the College offers not only 53 major programs of study, but also more than 60 minors. The student body stands at 1,950 with a full-time faculty of 131 men and women.
The appearance of the campus is vastly changing. In 1989, the Rufus P. Bucher Meetinghouse and Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Groups, an internationally renowned center for scholarly research, was opened on the shores of Lake Placida. The High Library opened in 1990, allowing Zug Memorial Hall to be transformed into a performing and fine arts teaching center. The Schreiber Quadrangle, built in 1992, provides opportunities for 120 seniors to experience independent living. A two-building, garden-style apartment complex for students, named after the late professor and Dean of Women, Vera Hackman ’25, was completed in July 2002. Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, built for concerts, lectures, religious services, conferences, and dramatic presentations, was completed in 1995. The Brossman Commons, a $12-million expansion of student-centered facilities, conjoining the Baugher Student Center and the Annenberg Center, was completed and dedicated in 2002.
A master land use and facilities plan calls for continued dramatic campus enhancements for the better part of the next decade. The James B. Hoover Center for Business, which houses the Department of Business, S. Dale High Center for Family Business and Edward R. Murphy Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning, opened its doors in fall 2006. The Masters Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering will be completed in fall 2008. The Masters project renovated more than 95,000 square feet in Esbenshade and Musser halls and provides an additional 33,000 square feet of science classroom and laboratory space in the new Lyet Wing for Biological Sciences.
The Kevin Scott Boyd ’98 Baseball Stadium opened for the 2004 season and an expansion of the Thompson Gymnasium facility currently underway will provide space for classes, varsity and intramural sports activities, coaches offices, a commons area (The Jaywalk) for students and a Hall of Fame.
