St. John's College

 St. John’s College is the third oldest college in the United States (reportedly behind Harvard, established in 1636, and College of William and Mary in 1693). Here are some highlights of a timeline of St. John’s history.

The King William’s School, the Maryland colony’s “free” school, is founded.

The state of Maryland charters St. John’s College, merging it with King William’s School; four of the college founders signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The former governor’s mansion, McDowell Hall, is completed and serves as the foundation for the college; it is now one of the oldest academic buildings in  

continuous use in the country. The interior of McDowell Hall was renovated in 2017.

President George Washington, who in 1783 at the nearby Maryland State House resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, visits St. John’s College, expressing “much satisfaction at the appearance of this rising seminary.”

Since at least 1792, the first year we have a documented curriculum for St. John’s, Johnnies have read the following authors that are still read in the Program today: Euclid, Plato, Livy, Xenophon, Aristotle, and Epictetus.

Francis Scott Key, a St. John’s alumnus, watches the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore and pens a poem—“The Star-Spangled Banner”—commemorating the American victory. 

By 1818, these still-read Program authors were added to the curriculum: Homer, John Locke, Virgil, Tacitus, Plutarch, Cicero, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

During the Civil War when Camp Parole is built outside the city of Annapolis, the Union’s medical corps takes over St. John’s buildings, which became known as College Green Hospital.

The Black and Orange, the St. John’s College football team, earns a 62-0 victory against what is now the University of Maryland, making the front page of the Washington Post.

A fire engulfs McDowell Hall and nearly burns the historic center of St. John’s College to the ground; in the aftermath of the blaze, alumni successfully advocate to have the building restored as close as possible to the original design. 

Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan implement their big idea, the New Program, which the college still follows today.

Alumni Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt started Elektra Records in Holzman’s dorm room. The label roster includes such legendary bands as Queen, the Doors, the Stooges, MC5, and many more.

St. John’s admits its first class of women in the student body; American folk legend Woody Guthrie performs at the college.

Program author W. E. B. Du Bois lectures in the King William Room on the Annapolis campus. Du Bois is the only Program author to have given a lecture at the college. 

President Dwight Eisenhower dedicates the McKeldin Planetarium and two other buildings on the Annapolis campus.

The college’s Santa Fe campus opens, with 81 students in the first freshman class.

St. John’s launches a summer institute for teachers, which will become the St. John's College Graduate Institute.

The Johnnies battle the Midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in the Annapolis Cup croquet match, which has become a beloved tradition. 

Six million television viewers tune in to a segment about St. John’s on the Today Show.

St. John’s distinctive liberal arts program and educational practices have long given it a highly respected place among American colleges and universities. Its strong commitment to collaborative inquiry and to the study of original texts makes St. John’s College a particularly vibrant community of learning. Through close engagement with the works of some of the world's greatest writers and thinkers—from Homer, Plato, and Euclid to Nietzsche, Einstein, and Woolf—undergraduate and graduate students at St. John’s College grapple with fundamental questions that confront us as human beings. As they participate in lively discussions and throw themselves into the activity of translating, writing, demonstrating, conducting experiments, and analyzing musical compositions, St. John’s students learn to speak articulately, read attentively, reason effectively, and think creatively. 

And, best of all, the students get to LIVE IN ANNAPOLIS!