History of Washington University in St. Louis

The history of Washington University in St. Louis began when it was co-founded as a nonsectarian, private institution in 1853 by St. Louis leader Wayman Crow, and the Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the Nobel Prize laureate poet T. S. Eliot. Its first chancellor was Joseph Gibson Hoyt. It desegregated its undergraduate divisions in May 1952.

The University's original name at the time of foundation was Eliot Seminary. Eliot, however, was not in favor of the name, and in 1854, the Board of Trustees changed it to Washington Institute in St. Louis in honor of George Washington. In 1857, the name was changed to Washington University. To avoid confusion with over 20 other institutions sharing the Washington name in their titles, the university again changed its name in 1976, restoring the "in St. Louis" suffix to distinguish it in the national media. ^{[http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/archives/facts/george.html]}

Washington University ended racial segregation in its undergraduate divisions in 1952, making it the last of the city's major colleges and universities to give full admittance to African Americans. During the mid- and late 1940s, the University was the target of critical editorials in the local African American press, letter-writing campaigns by churches and the local Urban League, and legal briefs by the NAACP intended to strip its tax-exempt status. In spring 1949, a Washington University student group, the Student Committee for the Admission of Negroes (SCAN), began campaigning for full racial integration. The administration continued to hold that full desegregation "would place the University outside of the community," as Vice-Chancellor Leslie Buchan claimed in 1951, and could spark "incidents on campus." However, under mounting internal and external pressure, the Board of Trustees in May 1952 passed a resolution desegregating the school's undergraduate divisions. [Amy M. Pfeiffenberger, "Democracy at Home: The Struggle to Desegregate Washington University in the Postwar Era," "Gateway-Heritage" (Missouri Historical Society), vol. 10, no. 3 (Winter 1989), pp. 17-24.]

Campus

Classes were first held in 1856 in Academic Hall, a single building at the corner of 17th Street and Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis. By 1892, it was obvious that a new site was necessary. A committee of Robert S. Brookings, Henry Ware Eliot and William Huse found a site of 103 acres just beyond Forest Park, mostly beyond the city limits in St. Louis County. The elevation of the land was thought to resemble the Acropolis and inspired the nickname of "Hilltop" campus, renamed the Danforth campus in 2006 to honor former chancellor William "Bill" H. Danforth. The cornerstone of the first building, Busch Hall, was laid onOctober 20, 1900. Construction began on other buildings shortly thereafter. To solve financial problems, the new buildings were leased as the headquarters of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair). Academic use of the new site began immediately after the Fair with services in the chapel on January 30, 1905. [http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/7697.html]

Recent history

The campus was the venue for three Presidential debates: the first 1992 Presidential debate on October 11, 1992, the third 2000 Presidential debate on October 17, 2000, and the second 2004 Presidential debate on October 8, 2004. The University was also scheduled to host a debate in 1996, but that debate was cancelled when the candidates chose not to participate.

In the summer of 2002, Brookings Hall Room 300 was transformed into the Mission Control center for Steve Fossett's sixth and ultimately successful attempt to circumnavigate the planet in a balloon--the Spirit of Freedom. [http://magazine.wustl.edu/Winter02/StudentsInMissionControl]

At the start of the Fall 2006 semester, the St. Louis Metro opened the Cross–County extension of its light rail MetroLink system. Three of the nine new stations directly serve the University (Skinker, University City-Big Bend, and Forsyth). On July 1, 2006, the University began offering free Metro passes--the U Pass--to all full-time students, faculty, and staff. [http://transportation.wustl.edu/wustlmetro_pass.html]

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