Emerson College history

With the new location, the college's first library was established in 1892.

Doctor Emerson retired in 1903 and William J. Rolfe, a Shakespearean scholar and actor, was named the second President of Emerson College of Oratory.

As the Student Government Association of the college held its first meeting in 1908, the third president of the college, Henry Lawrence Southwick, was inaugurated.

In addition, Emerson became the first school with a collegiate-level program in children's theater in 1919.

The school offered its first course in Journalism in 1924.

In 1930, full charge and control of the college was transferred to the Board of Trustees by William H. Kenney, Henry Lawrence Southwick, and Jessie Eldridge Southwick.

The college purchased its first piece of real estate with a new women's dormitory building at 373 Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay, and started intramural sports in 1931 with the organization of volleyball games.

These efforts led to the first publication of Emerson's student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon, in 1947, which is still in production today.

The FCC awarded the college a 10-watt license in 1949, and WERS, the first educational FM radio station in New England, was born.

At the start of the decade, in 1950, Emerson College became a member of the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, an accreditation association for schools and colleges in New England.

The college suffered from a severe financial crisis in 1952, and sought $50,000 in emergency funding.

In 1953, Emerson opened The Robbins Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic at 145 Beacon Street, furthering the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program.

A television studio was dedicated at 130 Beacon in 1954, with its first closed-circuit TV program the following year as WERS-TV. The first annual spring musical, Lady in the Dark by Moss Hart, was presented.

The 1964 “Daisy ad,” perhaps the single most-talked-about political spot in television history, featured a little girl counting while pulling petals off a daisy.

In 1967, Richard Chapin, former Dean of the Harvard Business School was inaugurated as the seventh president of Emerson College.

A year later in 1972, the college gained authorization to grant BFA, and MFA degrees.

Schwartz’s 1973 book The Responsive Chord explains how audio and visual material can be used to create “resonance” with an audience.

As soon as he was inaugurated in 1979, Koenig initiated talks with Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to relocate Emerson and merge the two schools.

In 1980 Emerson introduced an innovative graduate program in publishing.

In 1984, 335 Commonwealth Avenue was purchased for Administration and the Communication Studies department.

Emerson extended this philosophy to Los Angeles in 1986 with an internship-based program, and later opened its magnificent campus in the heart of Hollywood, where students are energized by the power of LA’s scintillating artistic and cultural scene.

In 1988, the college bought a building at Zero Marlborough Street (also known as 6 Arlington Street) for dormitories and a dining hall.

However, as real estate values in Boston dropped and the costs of constructing a new campus increased, the plans were put on hold and eventually abandoned when Koenig resigned as president in 1989.

Zacharis went on medical leave in 1992 and died of leukemia shortly after.

In addition, the college announced the purchase and restoration of The Little Building (1994) across the street from the Ansin Building and next to Emerson's Majestic Theatre.

In 1998, Emerson purchased the Walker Building (Boston) at 120 Boylston.

The Tufte Performance Production Center (PPC) at 10 Boylston Place opened in 2003.

An entirely new residence hall opened in 2004, a facility with residential suites, athletic facilities, offices and meeting rooms for student organizations, gathering places for off-campus students, spaces for small-group rehearsals and performances, and dining facilities.

The school purchased the historic Paramount Theatre (Boston) on Washington Street in 2005, with plans to build a new complex at the site including a 565-seat main stage theater inside the existing Paramount Theater and a 125-seat black box theater in an adjacent new building.

In September 2007, students in Emerson Alliance for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone (E.A.G.L.E.) as well as the Student Government Association (S.G.A.) received the gender neutral bathrooms they had pitched to the administration in the spring.

On March 18, 2010, the newly renovated Paramount Center officially opened, with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino illuminating the Paramount's original art deco marquee, which Emerson had restored.

In late 2019, Marlboro College announced that it would merge with Emerson at the end of the 2019–20 academic year.