The MLK Center at Old Main

‘The MLK Center at Old Main,’ a project to preserve and restore the former Crozer Theological Seminary

Old Main in Upland, PA (on the border of Chester), built in 1857 by John P. Crozer, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and the PA Historical and Museum Commission’s state marker program in 1992. In 1863, the teachers’ college was converted to a Civil War hospital after the bloody battle of Gettysburg. Both Union and Confederate soldiers were treated there, and evidence of this still exists today — in the outlines of holes cut into doors to pass food to Confederates —- as well as signatures and addresses of soldiers written on the walls of the building’s main cupola.

In 1866, Old Main became Crozer Theological Seminary, where the future Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent three formative years studying how to combine his strong faith with the fight for social and economic justice for his fellow Black citizens. The long-term vision for the MLK Center at Old Main is reopening the building as a multipurpose space for auxiliary health services, non-profit groups, community events, and a U.S. Civil Rights study center, library, and museum. Your donation in this planning phase will go towards architectural surveys of the building, focusing on the exterior; preservation and restoration consultants; and expenses associated with public notices, meetings and mailings.