America's Oldest Catholic University

Georgetown University, founded in 1789 by the Reverend John Carroll as a school for students of "Every Religious Profession," is the oldest Catholic university in America and has been administered by the Jesuits since 1805. A 1831 university prospectus instructed students to bring "a silver tumbler and spoon, two knives and forks, a matrass (sic) and a pillow, two pair of sheets and two pillow-cases, three blankets and a counterpane or rug." Healy Hall, facing the university's front gates, is named for Georgetown's twenty-ninth president, Rev. Patrick F. Healy, S.J., who served from 1873 to 1882; the son of an Irish father and a mother who had been a slave, Father Healy was the first African American president to head what became a major research university. The south pavilion of Healy contains the Riggs Memorial Library, one of the few remaining cast-iron libraries in the country, while the north pavilion contains Gaston Hall, the university's primary ceremonial space, named for Georgetown's first student, William Gaston, who later served in the U.S. Congress. Since 1879, Healy Hall has stood as a striking Georgetown landmark, with its 200-foot-high central clock spire visible up and down the Potomac River. Behind Healy Hall stands the original quadrangle, where the Old North Building houses classrooms and faculty offices; also there are Dahlgren Memorial Chapel of 1893 and the former residence halls Maguire, Gervase, Mulledy, and Ryan, named for earlier Jesuits and benefactors. President George Washington addressed students from the front porch of Old North in 1797, and the Marquis de Lafayette did so in 1824. Georgetown's alumni include President William J. Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, National Basketball Association player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Patrick Ewing, Sr., actor John Barrymore, and Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States