My bff Andrea and I are spending part of today attending the marker dedication for the Haines Shoe House in York County. So next week I'll be telling you about our adventures, and then the following week I'll be telling you about the marker and the house. That'll bring us into August, and those of you who subscribe to the monthly newsletter will be getting a big one because I may have sort of forgotten to send the one for July. (If you're not subscribed, there's plenty of time to sign up before the new one comes out - just use the handy little form on the right side of the blog. It's 100% free.)
Meanwhile, for today, I thought I'd head back to Cumberland County and take a look at a very interesting institute of higher learning. It's not a school anymore, but for a few decades it was one of the best places for a young woman to be educated, and at a time when only about 2% of women were attending college at all, that was an especially noteworthy feat.
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| The marker stands on East Main Street near Filbert Street, in front of the former college campus |
The land, situated along what is now East Main Street in Mechanicsburg, was soon adorned with a beautiful building known as Irving Hall, and the school it housed was likewise dubbed Irving Female College. It was named for Washington Irving, the popular author who penned such famous stories as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The author was even invited to serve on his namesake's board of trustees, and he remained a member from 1857 until his death two years later. Most of the students - there were usually fewer than one hundred at a time during the first decade - resided in Irving Hall, which served as a dormitory for forty students and also the classroom, parlor, library, and office of the college. Those students who could not live at Irving Hall resided elsewhere in Mechanicsburg.
Irving Hall's exterior remains to this day very similar to what it was at the time of its construction, minus the original bell steeple. It was designed to resemble an Italianate villa, standing three stories high and made of brick trimmed in wood. It features things like double-hung windows, French doors, large porches with carved wooden posts, and balconies. The first class graduated in 1859, with the ceremony featuring a speech by Rev. Conway Wing of nearby Carlisle. He referenced Psalm 114:12, and the school directors were inspired to adopt part of it as the official school motto: "That our daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace."
As the school changed, the name sometimes did as well. From Irving Female College, it was altered to Irving College for Young Ladies, Irving College for Young Women, and finally - from 1895 until its demise - it was the Irving College and Music Conservatory. Whatever it was called, though, it was beloved by its students. Part institute of higher learning and part finishing school, Irving was always held to the highest academic standards, and was the first school in Pennsylvania to allow women to receive degrees in arts and sciences. The students began producing a literary magazine called The Sketch Book in 1895, and in 1901 they started publishing a yearbook. Proof of their affection appears in the 1907 yearbook, which contains the following comment:
There is no institution for the education of young women in Pennsylvania that surpasses Irving in convenience, comfort, and capacity of its buildings, or its beautiful and accessible location.
A lot of graduates went into teaching, inspired by their years at Irving, but a number of others went into more male-dominated fields. Ida Kast, a member of the class of 1892, became the first woman in Cumberland County to practice law. From the class of 1902 came Jane Deeter Rippin, later the national executive director of the Girl Scouts, who introduced the sale of Girl Scout cookies. (The cookies even have their own marker.)
But like so many good things, Irving came to its end. E. E. Campbell, whose leadership had saved the school, was also the unwitting cause of its downfall; he had purchased the school outright from the board of directors, and though he offered to sell it back to them when they regretted the decision, they could not (or would not) meet his asking price. In 1928 he tried to sell it to the Lutheran church, without success, and he died the following year. The trustees struggled to keep the school open, but the executors of the Campbell estate closed it, and though an effort was made by alumnae to raise the funds to reopen it, the school remained closed. Its three buildings were sold in 1937.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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