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Kutztown University is currently
in the midst of its Sesquicenten-
nial Celebration, leading up to its
150th birthday in September. For
a century and a half, KU has ful-
filled a critical educational mission
for the residents of Pennsylvania.
The university was founded as
Keystone State Normal School
on September 15, 1866. Keystone
State Normal School’s founding
can be traced to the passage of
the Normal School Act of 1857.
Normal schools were developed to
teach teachers, but more than that,
they included model schools (lab
schools) for the student teachers
to work with actual elementary
school students.
The location of a Normal School
in Kutztown was not a foregone
conclusion. Some favored Ham-
burg and Fogelsville. Kutztown,
however, had an edge because
of the success of earlier schools
located there. In 1864, Maxa-
tawny Seminary opened on the
current site of Old Main. The
following year, a new group of
stockholders, interested in estab-
lishing a state normal school in
Kutztown, bought land surround-
ing the seminary and expanded
the existing building considerably.
In February 1866, the Keystone
Normal School opened and would
be approved to represent the third
Normal School District, consisting
of Berks, Lehigh and Schuylkill
counties, beginning in September
of that year.
The growth of the school in its
first half-century of existence cen-
tered on the expansion of Old
Main. The original structures were
all razed by 1895, and the current
buildings constructed between
1881 and 1902.
The institution grew over the next
60 years and on May 29, 1928,
became
Kutztown State Teachers
College,
when the first four-year
degrees were awarded for the first
time at commencement.
The Pennsylvania General Assem-
bly authorized the 14 state teacher
colleges to become multipurpose
state colleges in 1960. The next
two decades featured tremendous
growth for
Kutztown State
College,
as the college burst well
past its original borders. Additions
to north campus included a new
Sharadin Studio in 1961 and the
new Rohrbach Library in 1968.
Facilities expanded on south
Unrivaled Past