A Historical Tour of Princeton Theological Seminary
By Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

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Contents
1. Princeton, the College of New Jersey, and the Revolution
2. The Establishment of the Seminary at Princeton
3. The Expansion of the Seminary in the Nineteenth Century
4. The Evolution of the Seminary in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

4. The Evolution of the Seminary in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

Springdale

By the beginning of the twentieth century, America and its institutions had matured. At its sesquicentennial in 1896, the College of New Jersey changed its name to Princeton University, signaling its intention to develop beyond a liberal arts college into a research university. The Seminary had grown into a school with 12 professors and about 150 regular and advanced students. To create a more efficient administration of the Seminary, Francis L. Patton, who had just retired from the presidency of Princeton University, was called as the Seminary’s first president. As a suitable home for its president, the Seminary purchased Springdale, which had been built around 1850. Patton, in an argument with Harvard president Charles Eliot in the 1880s over the nature of theological education, had argued that theological seminaries were not merely concerned with theological education and research but with ministerial education for the church. Whatever changes would occur in American academic culture, the Seminary’s first loyalty would be to the church.

Benjamin B. Warfield

Charles Hodge’s most gifted student and successor, Benjamin B. Warfield, died in 1921. Warfield’s death marked the end of what has been called Old Princeton and the Princeton Theology, which was characterized by a biblical Calvinism, Reformed piety, and evidentialist apologetics. In 1929, after much internal turmoil, the governing structure of Seminary was reorganized and a group of dissatisfied professors and students, led by J. Gresham Machen, left to establish Westminster Theological Seminary.

During this tumultuous period at the Seminary, which reflected broader changes occurring in the Presbyterian Church and American culture, the Seminary campus remained largely unchanged. One notable exception was the construction of Payne Hall, which was built in 1922 with funds from the Payne family. The first student group organized at the Seminary was the Society of Inquiry on Missions, which was formed to cultivate student interest in missions. Payne Hall, representing the Seminary's support of global missions, provided housing for missionaries on furlough.

Tennent Hall

In 1936, Scotsman John A. Mackay became the Seminary’s third president. Under his leadership the Seminary began grow and change in many significant ways. The General Assembly of 1941 recommended that graduate schools of Christian Education be established for women at seminaries. The following year the Tennent College of Christian Education, which had opened in Philadelphia in 1907 to train women for lay leadership roles in the church, conveyed its assets to the Seminary in exchange for the Seminary’s pledge to carry on the work of the school at the graduate level.

To accommodate this expansion of its curriculum, the Seminary acquired in 1943 the campus of the Hun Preparatory School, now called the Tennent Campus, which included buildings for classrooms, dormitory rooms, and a gymnasium. Although a few women had matriculated at the Seminary earlier in the twentieth century, in 1944 women began to regularly attend the Seminary. (1944 was also the year in which the Seminary awarded its first doctorate degree, as part of a program that was begun in 1940.) Mackay’s next major project was the development of a Campus Center. The Mackay Campus Center opened in 1952 to replace Seminary eating clubs, which had supplanted the Seminary's apparently inadequate refectory. Mackay’s intention was to create a stronger sense of community at the Seminary by providing a common space where an increasingly diverse student body could meet and dine together.

Speer Reliefs

The two Lenox Libraries were razed to make room for the Robert E. Speer Library, which opened in 1957. Mackay named the building after his close friend Robert E. Speer, former Seminary trustee and General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church’s Board of Foreign Missions. When it opened, Speer Library was a model research facility. It provided ample space for library resources and services and contained a number of seminar rooms. Over the main entrance of Speer Library were two columns of seals symbolizing important Christian truths. The first image, at the top of the left column, is the creative hand of God, signifying the divine initiative; the last image, at the bottom of the right column, is John Calvin’s dedicated heart, signifying the human response to God.

James I. McCord

In 1959, James I. McCord became the Seminary’s fourth president. McCord was committed to the advancement of theological education and research. One outcome of this commitment was the establishment of the Center of Continuing Education, which has now become the School of Christian Vocation and Mission. The first continuing education seminars were held in Adams House (named after Dean Arthur M. Adams), which was purchased by the Seminary in 1962. Erdman Hall, the former site of the home of Professor Charles Erdman, was built as a dormitory in 1981 and then renovated in 2000 to provide state-of-the art facilities for continuing education programs.

McCord also established the Center of Theological Inquiry, in 1978, to support advanced research in theology. The CTI was modeled on the Institute for Advanced Study, which was founded in Princeton in 1930 as the first residential research institute for scholars in United States. Luce Hall was built for the CTI in 1984.

CRW Apartments

As early as the 1950s, the Seminary had been seeking better accommodations for married students. In 1965, McCord purchased an apartment development on what is now the Seminary’s West Windsor Campus. In 1979, the Seminary received a $16 million bequest and the mortgage on the property was paid off. The apartments are now named after the philanthropist’s mother, Charlotte Rachel Wilson, and the philanthropist’s name was given to the adjacent Charlotte Newcombe Social and Study Center, which opened in 1982. Also located at the West Windsor Campus are the Seminary Pool (which opened in 1991), the Witherspoon Apartments (which opened in 1998), and the Dupree Center for Children (a child care center, which opened in 1995 at the CN Center).

Thomas Gillespie

In 1983, Thomas Gillespie became the fifth president of the Seminary. Under his leadership, the Seminary continued to grow. Templeton Hall was completed in 1989 and contains administrative offices, preaching labs, and state-of-the-art media facilities. It is named after Sir John Templeton, who established the Templeton Fund and the Templeton Prize in Religion. Templeton became a trustee of the Seminary in 1951, and under his guidance the Seminary’s endowment grew substantially. The Henry Luce III Library, named after a former Seminary trustee and chairman of the Luce Foundation, opened in 1994 to further support research at the Seminary. Luce Library houses a repository for the archives of the Seminary and for manuscripts, rare books, and special research collections.

Scheide Hall and Miller Chapel

During his tenure, president Gillespie raised over $30 million for the renovation of older campus buildings. In 2000 Miller Chapel was renovated for the fourth time. Scheide Hall, a new building which opened in the same year, is named after a generous trustee emeritus of the Seminary, William H. Scheide. Scheide Hall houses the offices of the chapel staff and provides rehearsal space for the Seminary choirs.

Iain Torrance

In 2004, Princeton Seminary called Iain Torrance, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and younger son of the noted Scottish theologian, Thomas F. Torrance, as its sixth President. Accomplishments during his administration included a thorough review of the Seminary's programs and expanded emphasis on the mission of the Seminary in the face of ongoing changes in global Christianity and interfaith relations. Major physical changes on the campus included a renovation of the Seminary Library and of the student housing in the Charlotte Rachel Wilson Complex.