The 1950s marked a decade of growth for Elizabethtown College. Before the start of the decade, the campus consisted of five major buildings, but over the next 11 years, four more were added to the campus. Faculty members also nearly doubled, increasing from 30 to 58 members.
Because of the growth of faculty, both the variety and number of courses offered at the College increased as well. A marked change in student ideology was also taking place on campus. Students were slowly breaking from Brethren ideals, with a strong pushback against mandatory chapel attendance growing. The students’ views toward the Korean War were in contrast to the church’s pacifist ideals, with 10 students inducted into the military with strong campus support.
A Look Through the Decade
1950 – Zug Memorial Hall is dedicated on Oct. 20.
1952 – Etown joins the newly formed Foundation for Independent Colleges, a group of 38 non-tax-supported schools.
1953 – A.C. Baugher gives a televised lecture on WGAL-TV News 8’s College of the Air program, reaching 760,000 viewers in six counties. He was the first of many Etown faculty to give a lecture on the program.
1954 – Etown’s first woman member of the Board of Trustees, Mildred H. Enterline, begins her first three-year term.
1954 – Paul Eugene Greiner ’54 passes away. He was the College’s only Korean War casualty.
1956 – Construction concludes on a new women’s dormitory, which would eventually be named Myer Hall. The dorm was named in honor of Elizabeth Myer, one of the original faculty members and the first woman to teach at the College.
1956 – Etown’s first African American professor, John Jasper Spurling, begins teaching at the College.
1958 – The west wing of Gibble Science Hall opens, doubling laboratory space and adding two large classrooms, a lecture hall, and a faculty office space.
1959 – Construction on Ober Hall, named in honor of past President H.K. Ober, is completed.
Snapshots of the Decade
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- Students research, 1950
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- Dance at the Student Alumni Gymnasium, mid-1950s.
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- May Day, 1955
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- Students play tug of war at Homecoming, 1952
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- Final proofing by the Etownian, 1954
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- Aerial campus view, 1953
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- Professors using a calculator in the business machines room, 1953
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- Students in the double quarter harmonize on Gloria in Excelsis at a chapel program rehearsal, 1953
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- Student John Kugel calls Farview Hall from the first floor Alpha Hall telephone
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- Students Jay Lutz and Nancy Jo Snyder before the Junior-Senior Banquet, 1956
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- Student Senate meeting, 1959
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- College Orchestra, 1959
Throughout Elizabethtown College’s 125th anniversary year, follow along as we share 125 compelling stories about the College’s defining moments, alumni stories, and fun facts since our founding in 1899 at etown.edu.