4 C olumbia U niversity RECORD December 1, 2003 Columbia and Trinity Church Celebrate the 1754 Founding of Kings College Timeline: The Birth of Columbia University in Lower Manhattan BY JERRY KISSLINGER 1705 On Nov. 13, in a primal sort of Queen Anne of England gives land on the west side of Manhattan known as pilgrimage, Columbia University the Queen’s Farm to Trinity Church. The donated land, renamed the Church returned to its origins in Lower Farm, borders the Hudson River and spans what is now the area between Fulton Manhattan. Faculty, alumni, stu- and Christopher Streets. dents and staff joined with lead- 1751 The General Assembly of the Province of New York appoints ten trustees, ers and congregants of Trinity including seven members of the Vestry of Trinity Parish, to select a location for Church Wall Street in marking a new college. The trustees will administer funds that are generated by three lot- the 250th anniversary of the teries authorized by the assembly. founding of King’s College by 1752 The Vestry of Trinity Parish agrees to donate part of the Church Farm as a site royal charter of King George II for the new college. in 1754. A civic service of com- 1754 memoration and anniversary lun- May cheon celebrated Trinity’s role in Trinity Church sets as a condition for its land grant for the new college a the birth of King’s College, colo- requirement that its president be a member of the Church of England and that all religious services be consistent with the Anglican liturgy. The Rev. Samuel nial forebear of one of the Johnson, a Colonial scholar and Anglican minister, is appointed its first presi- world’s great research universi- dent. ties. PHOTOS BY EILEEN BARROSO July In opening the ceremony, Trin- Classes begin in the schoolhouse at Trinity Church, located on what is now Reverend Daniel Paul Matthews and President Bollinger presented the south side of Rector Street, approximately midway between Broadway and ity’s Rector, the Reverend Daniel to the City a plaque designating the site of the original campus of Trinity Place. Paul Matthews, invited cele- King’s College. Oct. 31 brants to take “a sacred pause, to Columbia University is founded as King’s College by royal charter of Eng- reflect on the significance of 1970s. Carl Weisbrod, President for the modern world.” land’s King George II. The charter stipulates the conditions of the Trinity Church beginnings and the importance of of the Alliance for Downtown land grant. It was a day of welcome oppor- 1755 history.” Among those reflecting New York, and Landmarks tunities in a historic setting, a Trinity Church presents King’s College with a parcel of land bordered by was Columbia President Lee C. Preservation Commission Chair chance for both Columbia and Church Street, Barclay Street, Murray Street and the Hudson River, and inter- Bollinger, who spoke of the Robert Tierney received the new Trinity to celebrate a common her- sected by Park Place. bonds between the two institu- plaque on behalf of the City and itage older than the nation, and for 1756 The cornerstone is laid for King’s College on the land granted by Trinity tions and their shared commit- extended congratulations to both Columbians to deepen their collec- Church. ments to spiritual life, the search Trinity Church and its secular tive self-understanding in the midst 1760 for truth and leadership in the offspring. of the 250th anniversary year. After King George II of England dies; his grandson George III assumes the crown. city. Expressing pride in Colum- In a ribbon-cutting ceremony all, as President Bollinger said, King’s College relocates to its own building at Park Place, overlooking the bia’s role in building New York, before the service, Trinity also Hudson River, which will remain the institution’s home until 1857. “Everyone wants to know his 1763 Bollinger quipped that the Uni- unveiled “The Birth of Columbia birthplace, to see where he came Myles Cooper, a 28-year-old Oxford University-trained minister, is appointed versity had provided “everything University in Lower Manhat- from.” the second president of King’s College. Samuel Johnson retires to Connecticut, from the sewers to the mayors.” tan,” an exhibition mounted out- For the full text of Ric Burns’ where he dies in 1772. doors on the church’s South remarks entitled, “Some Thoughts 1775 The American Revolution begins. Porch, steps away from the on Lower Manhattan on the Occa- The British ship Asia bombards the Battery, causing New Yorkers to fear for grave of Alexander Hamilton, sion of Columbia University’s their lives and homes. the most illustrious member of 250th Birthday,” visit the C250 Pursued by angry Patriots, President Cooper flees King’s College for the “Everyone wants to the King’s College student body. Website, at www.c250.colum- British frigate HMS Kingfisher. He is believed to have been partly responsible The exhibition closed on Nov. bia.edu for pamphlets opposing resistance to the Crown. know his birthplace, Benjamin Moore (Kings College 1768), recently ordained an Anglican min- 16. ister and tutor at the college, becomes acting president. Following the service (and a 1776 to see where he wind-blasted walk down Wall The Patriots briefly occupy King’s College as a military hospital. When the Street to a nearby hotel), guests British occupy Manhattan later in the year, they continue to use the college as a came from.” hospital. attended a luncheon featuring On Sept. 21, a fire sweeps through New York City north to King’s College, President Bollinger remarks by Ric Burns. A Colum- destroying Trinity Church and Charity School. St. Paul’s Chapel is saved, but bia alumnus and acclaimed docu- nearly 500 houses are burned down, leaving thousands of New Yorkers home- mentary filmmaker, Burns less. spoke on the historical importance 1783 A peace treaty is signed between Great Britain and the United States. of Lower Manhattan, the “engine 1784 Further perspectives came of the city,” and “launching pad King’s College reopens with a new charter and a new name: Columbia Col- from Kenneth Jackson, president lege. John Jay (Kings College 1764) and Alexander Hamilton (Kings College of the New-York Historical Soci- 1774-1775) are both instrumental in the college’s reopening. The new charter declares Columbia the “mother college” of the University of the State of New ety and the Jacques Barzun Pro- York, with Governor George Clinton as chancellor. The college’s governors are fessor in History and the Social now called regents, and the earlier requirements of the Trinity Church land grant Sciences at Columbia. Jackson is are eliminated from the charter. co-Chair of Columbia 250 along 1787 with Trustee Chair Emeritus A new charter vests Columbia’s governance in a self-perpetuating 24-member board, which is re-designated “the Trustees of Columbia College in the City of Henry King, also in attendance. New York.” Jackson is currently a Trinity William Samuel Johnson, a lawyer and the son of the college’s first president, vestreyman and King has also is elected the third president of Columbia. He assumes his duties after serving served on the Trinity vestry. as a member of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, alongside Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. He is the second layman to pre- The story of the College’s side over an American college. founding and early growth was 1789 elaborated by Robert M. Following his inauguration at Federal Hall, President George Washington McCaughey, Ann Whitney Olin attends a Thanksgiving service presided over by Bishop Provost at St. Paul’s professor of history at Barnard Chapel, a chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church. President Washington and Vice President John Adams attend the Columbia Commencement at St. Paul’s Chapel College. McCaughey has just on May 7. published Stand Columbia, a sin- 1790 gle-volume interpretive history The second Trinity Church is consecrated on March 5. of the University. As the Trinity 1801 Benjamin Moore, rector of Trinity Church and bishop of New York, becomes Choir sang a medley of works by Columbia’s fifth president. alumni Richard Rodgers, Lorenz 1804 Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, Alexander Hamilton dies of wounds received in a duel with Aaron Burr. even “My Funny Valentine,” Hamilton attended King’s College from 1773 to 1775, when he left to join the sounded almost hymn-like in the Continental Army. He later served as Trustee of Columbia College, from which he received an honorary degree in 1788. Hamilton’s funeral at Trinity Church layered harmonies of the was widely attended. He was buried on the south side of the churchyard, where arrangement and the resonance a monument was erected in 1806. of the nave. 1836 Matthews and Bollinger then John Watts dies and is buried in the family vault in the south side of Trinity’s churchyard. Watts, a graduate and Trustee of King’s College, served as the last presented to the City a plaque Royal recorder of New York from 1774 to 1777 and as a member of Congress designating the site of the origi- from 1793 to 1795. nal campus of King’s College. 1857 Soon to be installed in the wall Columbia sells its Park Place campus and moves midtown, to 49th Street. and surrounding Trinity’s church- Madison Avenue, the former site of the New York Deaf and Dumb Asylum. The Main Hall of the College at Park Place, built in 1760, is demolished in May. yard, it replaces a plaque created 1897 for Columbia’s bicentennial in Columbia University moves to its present home in Morningside Heights.