Radnor Township.

The studies in the collegiate department embrace a course of seven years in philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, the languages ancient and modern, physics, and the arts, and in the ecclesiastical branch, of philosophy, ecclesiastical history, theology, canon law, and the sacred Scriptures.

The college was empowered by the Legislature of the State, in 1848, to confer degrees, the same as is done in other colleges and universities of the United States, and to enjoy the privileges of the same.

From 1842 down to the present scholars have been entered from nearly every State and Territory of the Union, from Mexico, the West Indies, South America, and from several countries in Europe.

The collegiate year just ended of 1883-84 closed with sixty-six students in the collegiate department and seventeen in the ecclesiastical.

The presidents of the institution have been: 1842-47, Rev. John Possidius O'Dwyer, O.S.A.; 1847-48, Rev. William Harnett, O.S.A.; 1848-50, Rev. John Possidius O'Dwyer, O.S.A. (second term); 1850-51, Rev. William Harnett, O.S.A. (second term); 1851-55, Rev. Patrick Eugene Moriarty, D.D., O.S.A.; 1855-57, Rev. William Harnett, O.S.A. (third term). The college closed in this year (1857) until 1865-69, Rev. Ambrose Augustine Mullen, O.S.A.; 1869-72, Rev. Patrick Augustine Stanton, O.S.A.; 1872-76, Rev. Thomas Galberry, O.S.A.; 1876-78, Rev. Thomas Cooke Middleton, D.D., O.S.A.; 1878-80, Rev. John Joseph Fedigan, O.S.A.; 1880, Rev. Joseph Augustine Coleman, O.S.A.

In pursuance of the original plan the authorities at Villanova are now erecting a church to take the place of the frame building used since 1872, but which for some years has proved wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of Catholic worship.

Since 1842, when the first to assist at the divine services numbered seven, the congregation has increased far more than a hundredfold. The present parish counts eight hundred souls and upwards, which during the summer months is increased by outside attendance to perhaps twice that number. Three masses on Sundays are unable to satisfy the needs of the people.

The new church, now being roofed, will seat about eight hundred persons. It is designed to have seven altars, and at the rear of the chancel and high altar a conventual choir, with stalls for the religious, who will thus be enabled to carry out fully the ritual and ceremonial of the church for divine worship.

The new building faces Lancaster Avenue, and measures, externally, one hundred and forty-three feet in length by a width of fifty-nine feet, not including the projecting sacristy and the baptistery. The three front door-ways are entered by seven steps. The façade is sixty feet wide, with a central gable having a corbeled niche with a pedestal for the statue of the patron saint.

On either side are two towers, eighteen feet square at the base by sixty-three feet high, to be surmounted by spires, making the total height one hundred and twenty-six feet. The outer work is faced with gray stone laid in promiscuous rubble-work and dressings of granite. The ground-plan consists of a nave with side aisles with deep sanctuary, terminating in an apsidal choir for the religious, - a feature in architecture rarely to be met with in the United States, and the only one in this part of Pennsylvania. The style of architecture is Gothic, and when completed will add greatly to the already stately pile of buildings at Villanova.¹

Radnor Friends' Meeting-Houses. - As early as 1686 a sufficient number of Friends had made settlements in Radnor to establish an independent meeting for worship in the township. David Meredith's name was the first to appear in the Haverford records as belonging to Radnor Meeting, though, doubtless, there were a few others who became identified with it equally as early. The early meetings in Radnor were generally held in the dwelling-houses of John Jerman (who was a Quaker preacher of considerable ability, and who visited England and Wales in 1712) and John Evans. The first marriage in Radnor was solemnized in the house of the latter, on the 2d of the Third month (May), 1686, between Richard Ormes, of Philadelphia, and Mary Tyder, of Radnor.

In 1693 the Radnor Friends built their first meeting-house. A new Friends' meeting-house, however, was commenced in 1718. The minutes of the Monthly Meeting that relate to the erection of this edifice are given, to show the cautious manner in which such enterprises were entered upon in the early days. The first proceedings regarding this matter took place at a meeting held in Haverford, Eighth month 10, 1717, and were made a subject of record, as follows:

"A letter from our Friend Benjamin Holm to this meeting, recommending to their consideration the stirring up of frd^s in y^e building of their meeting-house att Radnor, and with desires y^t we should be concerned for y^e prosperity of Truth, was read in this meeting, and approved off. Likewise this meeting, pursuant to Radnor frds, desire acquiess w^th y^m in building a new meeting-house, and this meeting appoints David Morris, David Lewis, Edd Rees, Robert Jones, Richard Hayes, and Samuel Lewis to assist y^m In y^e contrivance [and] y^e building Thereof, and they meet together ab^t it on y^e 21^st of this instant, [and report] to y^e next meeting."

The members of the committee all belonged to the meetings of Haverford and Merion. The next meeting was held in Merion, and one of its minutes embraces the report of the committee, wherein they say, "Some friends of those appointed to assist Radnor friends In y^e Contrivance of a new meeting-house, then having acc^t y^t they have accordingly mett, and given y^m Their thoughts as to y^e bigness and form thereof. To w^ch Radnor frd^s Then there present seemed generally to agree w^th." The west end of the present meeting-house was the building then erected, but it was not finished until two or three