Tualatin Academy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tualatin Academy | |
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| Established: | 1848 |
| Type: | Secondary school |
| Location: | Forest Grove, Oregon, USA |
| Fate: | Closed in 1914 Pacific University continued |
Tualatin Academy was a secondary school in the U.S. state of Oregon that eventually became Pacific University. Tualatin Academy also refers to the National Register of Historic Places-listed college building constructed in 1850 to house the academy, also known as Old College Hall. The building now serves as the Pacific University Museum, and is one of the oldest collegiate buildings in the western United States.
[edit] Academy
Congregational minister Harvey L. Clark started a missionary school in 1841 just north of East Tualatin Plains, now Hillsboro.[1] The school was soon moved to West Tualatin Plains (now Forest Grove) where in 1847 Clark was joined by Tabitha Moffatt Brown, the Mother of Oregon.[1] The two then operated a school for settler’s children and Brown opened a school for orphans, opening in 1848.[1][2] The Reverend Henry H. Spalding’s wife Eliza was hired to teach at the school the first year.[2] In 1848, Presbyterians and Congregationalists determined to start a school with Clark and Brown’s school as the location.[3] The Oregon Territorial Legislature chartered the Tualatin Academy on September 29, 1849.[1]
Founding trustees of the school included Clark, P. H. Hatch, George H. Atkinson, James M. Moore, and Osborne Russell among others.[1] In 1854, when college classes were added, Pacific University was split from the Academy.[1] Tualatin Academy continued alongside the university until it was closed in 1914, at a time when many private high schools disappeared with the growth of public schools.[1]
[edit] Building
| Tualatin Academy | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | Forest Grove, Oregon |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1850 |
| Added to NRHP: | February 12, 1974 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 74001722 |
| Governing body: | Pacific University |
The Tualatin Academy building, now known as Old College Hall, is a two-story wood-frame structure.[4] Built by the community in July 1850 in barn raising fashion, it replaced a log cabin previously used by the school.[4] A second identical building was added 18 years after Old College Hall and named Academy Hall.[2] Sitting atop its hipped roof is an octangonal shaped louvered belfry, similar to one that was on the Oregon Institute building.[4] The rectangular shaped hall is divided by a centralized cross hall.[4] Currently it is the oldest college building in the state and is used as a museum and chapel.[4] The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Tualatin Academy on February 12, 1974.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. p. 190.
- ^ a b c Buan, Carolyn M. This Far-Off Sunset Land: A Pictorial History of Washington County, Oregon. Donning Company Publishers, 1999.
- ^ Horner, John B. (1919). Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 159
- ^ a b c d e Walton, Elisabeth (Oct. 1973). "A Note on William W. Piper and Academy Architecture in Oregon in the Nineteenth Century". The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 32 (3): 231–238. doi:.
