Tualatin Academy was a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

that eventually became

Pacific University Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the original Forest Grove campus is west of Portland. The university maintains three other campuses in Eugene, Hillsboro, and Wood ...

. Tualatin Academy also refers to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

-listed college building constructed in 1850 to house the academy, also known as Old College Hall. The building now serves as the Pacific University Museum, and is one of the oldest collegiate buildings in the

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

Academy

Congregational minister

Harvey L. Clark Harvey L. Clarke (October 2, 1807 – March 25, 1858) was an educator, missionary, and settler first on the North Tualatin Plains which would become Glencoe, Oregon, and then on the West Tualatin Plains that would become Forest Grove, Oregon. ...

started a missionary school in 1841 just north of East Tualatin Plains, now Hillsboro.Corning, Howard M. ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. p. 190. The school was soon moved to West Tualatin Plains (now Forest Grove) where in 1847 Clark was joined by

Tabitha Moffatt Brown Tabitha Moffatt Brown (May 1, 1780 – May 4, 1858) was an American pioneer colonist who traveled the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country. There she assisted in the founding of Tualatin Academy, which would grow to become Pacific University in F ...

, the Mother of Oregon. The two then operated a school for settler's children and Brown opened a school for orphans, opening in 1848.Buan, Carolyn M. ''This Far-Off Sunset Land: A Pictorial History of Washington County, Oregon''. Donning Company Publishers, 1999. The Reverend

Henry H. Spalding Henry Harmon Spalding (1803–1874), and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) were prominent Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow missio ...

’s wife Eliza was hired to teach at the school the first year. In 1848, Presbyterians and Congregationalists determined to start a school with Clark and Brown's school as the location.Horner, John B. (1919). ''Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature''. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 159 The

Oregon Territorial Legislature Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Representati ...

chartered the Tualatin Academy on September 29, 1849. Founding trustees of the school included Clark, P. H. Hatch, George H. Atkinson, James M. Moore, and

Osborne Russell Osborne Russell (19 June 1814 – 1 May 1884) was a mountain man and politician who helped form the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born in Maine. Early life Osborne Russell was born 19 June 1814, in the village of Bowdoinha ...

among others. In 1854, when college classes were added,

was split from the Academy. Tualatin Academy continued alongside the university until it was closed in 1914, at a time when many private high schools disappeared with the growth of public schools.

Building

The Tualatin Academy building, now known as Old College Hall, is a two-story wood-frame structure. Built by the community in July 1850 in

barn raising A barn raising, also historically called a raising bee or rearing in the U.K., is a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community. Barn raising was particular ...

fashion, it replaced a log cabin previously used by the school. A second identical building was added 18 years after Old College Hall and named Academy Hall. Academy Hall burned in 1910. Old College hall later was the Science Hall for the university and known as the Chem Shack to students from 1900 to 1950. In 1949, the science department moved out and the building was renamed as Old College Hall. That year two rooms upstairs became the Pacific University Museum.Colby, Richard N. “Tour of time: An open house will make it easy to take in the county’s hidden treasures, historic and otherwise, in one swoop”, The Oregonian, April 23, 1998, West Zoner, p. 1. Old College Hall, 1934

Sitting atop its hipped roof is an octagonal shaped louvered belfry, similar to one that was on the

Oregon Institute The Oregon Institute was an American school located in the Willamette Valley of the Oregon Country during the 19th century. Begun in 1842, it was the first school built for European Americans west of Missouri. Founded by members of the Methodist M ...

building. The rectangular shaped hall is divided by a centralized cross hall. Colonial Revival in style,. the structure was added to the

as Tualatin Academy in 1974."Department of the Interior, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service: National Register of Historic Places; Annual Listing of Historic Properties", (February 6, 1979), at p. 7571. The downstairs of the building houses the Price Memorial Chapel and meeting space. It is the oldest college building in the state. and was still in use as a museum and chapel in 2017.

Pacific University Museum

The second floor of Old College Hall contains the Pacific University Museum with exhibits about the history of the University, including items from school founder

, first school president Sidney Harper Marsh, alumni and friends. Visits are by appointment with the Office of the President. The museum opened in 1949 as part of the school's centennial celebration. University Services & Resources: Old College Hall and the Pacific University Museum

References

{{Oregon Pioneer History Forest Grove, Oregon Pacific University 1848 establishments in Oregon Territory School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Educational institutions established in 1848 1914 disestablishments in Oregon Educational institutions disestablished in 1914 National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Oregon