Boston University history

Boston College was founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to educate Boston’s predominantly Irish, Catholic immigrant community.

It opened its doors on September 5, 1864, in a building on Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End, a “small streetcar college” for commuting students.

Warren joined forces with three prominent Boston businessmen who were also devote Methodists and abolitionists (Lee Claflin, Jacob Sleeper, and Isaac Rich), and in 1869 they signed a petition to charter what was arguable the very first modern research university in America: Boston University.

In effect, Harvard faculty distanced themselves from the responsibility of managing student affairs and in 1870, the very first Dean of Students, a new bread of administrators was hired to focus on students character, conduct, academic advising, and extracurricular interests.

Thomas I. Gasson, S.J., bought 31 acres of the former Lawrence Farm in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and broke ground in 1909 on a new campus, today fondly known as “the Heights.”

After years of frustrations, the depression waned and Marsh quickly raised $1 million dollars in 1938 to construct the very first building on the new campus, a new home for the College of Business Administration known as the Hayden Memorial Building.

In 1939, he published The American Canon, which provided a foundational perspective for American patriotism that became a widely published treatise on political philosophy.

Robert Munsch, in full Robert Norman Munsch, (born June 11, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States), American-born Canadian author of children’s books, noted for his humorous and imaginative stories.

By the time Marsh retired in 1951, it soared to nearly 35,000 students.

Martin Luther King Jr., an admirer of Howard Thurman, earned his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955.

Munsch was encouraged to write down the stories he told, and his first book, Mud Puddle, was published in 1979.

In 1983, the Metcalf Science Center for Science & Engineering was built, and might be described correctly as Structural Expressionism.