Classrooms to Social Hub

Like the other rooms on the first floor, this space was a classroom when Girard College first opened in 1848. It was initially a lecture room for natural history and physiology classes, then became the drawing classroom around 1887. After the construction of a separate high school building in 1916, this room began its new life as a social space for Girard students.

In the 1911 Girard College Annual Report, President Cheesman A. Herrick expressed the need for a separate high school building. He suggested that Founder’s Hall could instead provide something new to the school: an activity-oriented space on campus.

“There is also frequent demand for club rooms and various meeting rooms for groups of older boys… At present we have no adequate and suitable places where such meetings can be held. Thus it is seen that we have ample demand for all the space of the present Main Building without using it for instruction purposes. The Building would lend itself to these uses admirably.” 

When the new High School building was was completed in 1916, Founder's Hall did develop a new role as a student center and event space. This particular room (the northeast room) was briefly used as an extension of the library after classes left the building. When the library moved to its own building in 1933, the space began to be used as a social hall for student and alumni events. Acoustical paneling was added on the walls by the 1950s to counteract the echoing hard surfaces of the marble and plaster, making this the best location for larger gatherings, dinners, and dances. Originally only used for in-house events, such as canteen dances for the Girard College Battalion (a campus drill group), high school proms, and alumni dinners, today this room and the other event spaces in Founder's Hall are used for a wide variety of activities for both Girard College and the wider community.

Upstairs, the entire second floor of Founder's Hall became "recreation rooms" : an auditorium, game room, club room, and reading room. Student center activities eventually expanded to include a lounge and a snack shop, operated by students for their peers. Profits made from sales in the snack shop were often used for school-related causes, like funding for the school yearbook in 1960. The student center also served as an event space which hosted birthday parties and other functions for students. Eventually use of the Founder's Hall student center dissolved; at times it was revived elsewhere on campus, and returned briefly to this this building in the early 1990s. Student Dane Troup (GC Class of 1990) wrote in the student newspaper in December 1989:

"The Social Center is something that is desperately needed. It will increase school spirit and provide a place for the Girard Students to socialize. If the social center is put in Founder's Hall, it will be another method of bringing students closer to Girard.”

Founder's Hall no longer houses the student center, which can now be found in the Hum (Junior School) at the west of campus. Today the first floor of Founder's Hall is used as event space for both Girard College events such as prom, sports banquets and senior dinners, and for community and outside events, while the second floor is devoted to a publicly accessible museum and archives.

Girard College Historical Collection.

Steel & Garnet. Spring 2022. Girard College.

Troup, Dane. "Student Center a Reality." The Girard News. December 1989.