McDowell Hall

Photograph by Aubrey Bodine

C. 1950

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE … This venerable Annapolis institution, chartered in 1784, traces its lineage back to 1696 when its predecessor, King William’s School, was founded. Early alumni included two of Washington’s nephews, as well as Reverdy Johnson and Francis Scott Key. It once was so anti-coeducational that a president who favored coeducation was forced to resign. Now it seeks to attract women students. Since 1937 its curriculum has been based on the famous “Great Books” program.. McDowell Hall is named for the first president of the college. Founded in Annapolis in 1696 as King William's School, St. John's College was chartered by the state of Maryland in 1784. In 1937, with the college struggling financially and academically, Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan launched a new academic program based on reading and discussion of the seminal works of Western civilization. Their "radical" experiment in liberal education resulted in the college becoming one of the best and most distinctive colleges in the United States, and a model for many other liberal arts programs. Women were admitted for the first time in 1951, and in 1964, a second campus was opened, in Santa Fe, N.M. Today, St. John's is a four-year, co-educational, liberal arts college with no religious affiliation, and about 900 undergraduate students on two campuses.

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