Historic Shepherd University
"Campus Elm Series"
Representative Gallery
About Historic Shepherd University
In July, 1871, the Jefferson County seat was moved from Shepherdstown to Charles Town, freeing the old courthouse/town hall for use as an educational institution. This imposing Greek Revival structure had been erected in 1859 by Rezin Davis Shepherd, who intended it to be a town hall. According to Historic Shepherdstown, the "clock in the tower, donated to the town by Shepherd in 1842 and originally housed in the old Episcopal Church, was moved to the town hall tower in 1860. Though neglected during some periods, the clock has been maintained in recent decades and still strikes the hour." In 1872 the building became the first building of what is today Shepherd University. According to the article of incorporation signed by a handful of Shepherdstown's city fathers including Henry Shepherd, Shepherd College was to provide instruction “in languages, arts and sciences.” The first 42 students enrolled in September, 1871, under the administration of first principal Professor Joseph McMurran, for whom the building was eventually named. In 1872 the West Virginia Legislature passed an act stating “That a branch of the State Normal School be and the same is hereby established at the building known as Shepherd College, in Shepherdstown, in the county of Jefferson.”
Shepherd began granting the bachelor of arts degree in 1930, when it became a four-year college for the training of teachers, and in 1943 and 1950 respectively, was authorized to implement liberal arts programs and the bachelor of science program. Shepherd now offers baccalaureate degrees in a wide range of fields, encompassing the liberal arts, business administration, teacher education, the social and natural sciences, and other career-oriented areas. In 2014 Shepherd's undergraduate enrollment was just under 3,900, and its graduate enrollment was 286. The Campus, which consists of East Campus and West Campus, includes several historic buildings and sites, and has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two decades, now including 43 major buildings, among them the $9 million Robert C. Byrd Science and Technology Center, the $18 million addition to the Scarborough Library, which also houses the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, the $10 million Erma Ora Byrd nursing classroom building, and my favorite, the "Little House" pictured below, built in the late 1920's as a project to encourage children to attend summer school.
Shepherd University's dynamic presence and unique blend of the old and the new are part of what makes the Town a great place to live and learn.
sources: Historic Shepherdstown and the Shepherd University Website.
About The Campus Elm
There was nothing particularly historic about the Chinese Elm that stood across from White Hall until its removal, for safety reasons, in July, 2014. It's canopy is seen at right in the fuzzy photograph obscuring the front of the building in better days. Estimated to have been around 80 years old by the estimable late Dr. Carl Bell, of Shepherd's Biology Department, such trees were often planted as replacements for the stately American Elms that fell victim to the deadly pathogen called Dutch elm disease. This particular specimen, however, was covered with what are commonly known as "burls," which are tree growths where the grain has grown in a deformed manner, the cells having created tissue that neither sprouts into foliage or grown into a twig. If you passed by this tree on a regular basis, as I did, you might have noticed that its large number of burls gave it an almost totem pole-like appearance. I never failed to think about Tolkien's "Ents" whenever I passed, and I was saddened by its demise even as I hustled to acquire some of the precious burl wood, from which I continue to this day to make objects upon the lathe. Other than those pieces - bowls and ink pens mostly - the stump of the gentle giant - with its personality to spare - is all that remains today.
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