Union Presbyterian Seminary history

William Anderson Scott sails from New Orleans to San Francisco to found Calvary Presbyterian Church in 1854.

City College opens in 1861 in Calvary Presbyterian Church.

In 1871, the Synod of the Pacific founds San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Charles Anthony is the first SFTS graduate in 1873.

In September 1889, Foster buys the San Anselmo property at an auction, intending to donate it to the Seminary.

With Synod approval in 1890, the Board votes to accept the offer of a 14-acre hilltop site in San Anselmo from Arthur Foster.

On September 21, 1892, with 1,200 people in attendance, a faculty of six, and about 20 students, Montgomery and Scott Halls were dedicated and the San Anselmo campus officially opened.

SFTS groundskeeper Alexander Bouick circulates prohibition petitions as early as 1893.

John MacIntosh is elected the first president of SFTS in 1904, helping the Seminary keep pace with business and industry models.

The earthquake sends San Franciscans to San Anselmo, which incorporates in 1907 in response to the growth.

A gymnasium opens in 1926; later it will be converted into a theater.

In 1935, SFTS awards its first Doctor of Theology degree.

Jesse Hays Baird becomes president in 1937, beginning his 20-year tenure, the longest in SFTS history.

The Diamond Jubilee Campaign begins in 1943, raising $550,000 for campus buildings.

A week of activities in 1947 celebrates SFTS’s rise from near-collapse.

Baird Hall opens in 1950 as a women’s dorm.

Theodore Gill becomes president in 1958 and begins to establish the Seminary’s international reputation.

Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart narrates SFTS promotional video in 1960.

Sixth-generation Chinese-American Robert Lee becomes first professor of East-Asian background at an American seminary in 1961, teaching social ethics.

Thirteen SFTS students refuse to cooperate with the Selective Service System (military draft) in a 1967 demonstration, followed by four others two months later.

SFTS joins other GTU members in a one-day strike to protest the National Guard’s killing of four Kent State University students during a Vietnam protest in 1970.

SFTS trustees authorize teaching M.Div. courses in Southern California in 1990 and another former moderator, Jack Rogers, is appointed to head the new program.

Scott and Montgomery Halls are rededicated in 2000 after being closed for years due to damage sustained in the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Classes began in February 2002 with a Genesis cohort of 22 students.

The 2008 stock market collapse forces the Seminary to reduce its budget by 15 percent, eliminate staff and faculty positions, and restructure the Lloyd Center’s focus from community counseling to student counseling and spiritual direction.

In 2009, Union's Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the institution to Union Presbyterian Seminary, partially as a means of distinguishing it from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

In July 2010, Union-PSCE changed its name to Union Presbyterian Seminary to reflect a collective vision for the future and to signify the new creation that God is forming out of this historic seminary.