page_title: Pacific University
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pacific University / History
caption_attribution_description: A central office and classroom building at Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon.
context_page_description: Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the university's original Forest Grove campus is 23 miles west of Portland. The university maintains three other campuses in the cities of Eugene, Hillsboro, and Woodburn, and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students.
context_section_description: Tabitha Moffatt Brown, a pioneer emigrant from Massachusetts, immigrated to the Oregon Country over the new Applegate Trail in 1846. After arriving in Oregon she helped to start an orphanage and school along with Rev. Harvey L. Clark in Forest Grove in 1847 to care for the orphans of Applegate Trail party. In March 1848, Tualatin Academy was established from the orphanage with Clark donating 200 acres (80.9 ha) to the school. George H. Atkinson had advocated the founding of the school and with support of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists helped to start the academy. Eliza Hart Spalding, part of the Whitman Mission, was its first teacher. Although the university has long been independent of their founding affiliation with the United Church of Christ (UCC), it still maintains a close working relationship with the church as a member of the United Church of Christ Council for Higher Education.
  The academy was officially chartered by the territorial legislature on September 29, 1849. The reverend Clark served as the first president of the board of trustees and later donated an additional 150 acres (60.7 ha) to the institution. In 1851, what is now Old College Hall was built and in 1853 Sidney H. Marsh became the school's first president. The current campus was deeded in 1851. In 1854, the institution became Pacific University. The first commencement occurred in 1863 with Harvey W. Scott as the only graduate. In 1872, three Japanese students started at the university as part of that country's modernization movement, with all three graduating in 1876. These students were Hatstara Tamura, Kin Saito, and Yei Nosea. President Marsh died in 1879 and was replaced by John R. Herrick.
  Marsh Hall was built in 1895 and named for Pacific's first president, serving as the central building on Pacific's campus. Carnegie Library (now Carnegie Hall) opened in 1912 after Andrew Carnegie's foundation helped finance the brick structure. The library was designed by Portland architecture firm Whidden and Lewis. In 1915, the preparatory department, Tualatin Academy, closed due to the proliferation of public high schools in the state. By 1920, the school had grown to a total of five buildings on 30 acres (12.1 ha) and had an endowment of approximately $250,000.
  Marsh Hall was gutted by fire in 1975, but its shell was preserved, and the structure reopened in 1977. Dr. Phillip D. Creighton became Pacific's sixteenth president in August 2003 and retired in June 2009. Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist of the band KISS, was elected to the university's board of trustees in 2005. Pacific's seventeenth president, Dr. Lesley M. Hallick, was named on May 19, 2009.
caption: Marsh Hall
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