Pictorial history of the Historic President’s House (hover over pictures for captions)
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- The original house was a one-story brick edifice built in 1833. It served as the residence of John Reed, a Cumberland County Judge and Dickinson College Professor of Law, from 1833-1850.
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- The house was purchased by the college and renovated for use as the home of the college president in 1890. The idea of an independently chartered Dickinson School of Law was confected in this house, in this year. George Reed (no relation to Judge Reed), the first college president to occupy the house, also served as the first president of the newly chartered law school.
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- Renovations, completed in the mid-1890’s, included adding two stories, a wrap-around covered porch, and a roof over the third floor balcony. In addition, the main entry was relocated to the center of the house. Improvements were funded with a $8,000 gift from William Clare Allison, Class of 1893. The first classes of the Dickinson School of Law were convened in the basement.
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- The graduating class posed on the newly added front porch of the renovated and expanded president’s house in 1898 after the graduation ceremony that was held in Bosler Hall that year.
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- The west wall of the original Allison Methodist Church can be seen just to the left of the president’s house. A devastating fire swept through the church in 1954 and the building was demolished after a new church building (now Allison Hall) was erected on the west end of campus in 1957.
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- During this period two grand doors on the front porch, to the left and the right of the central staircase, served as the main entrance to the house.
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- Sometime between 1930 and 1950 the historic president’s house underwent another major transformation when (1) the main entry was moved to the east side porch, (2) the central main doors were converted to windows, and (3) the front porch roof and third-floor balcony roof were both removed.
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- President Edel and VP Malcom celebrating installation of the “Class of 1915” gates (c1955).
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- President Howard Rubendall (Class of 1931) with wife Carolyn on the northeast lawn of the newly renovated president’s house (circa 1961).