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The Curtilage

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Sadler Curtilage, 1964

The need for a dormitory for law students had been recognized for some time – as early as 1898, in fact.  However, the situation was not adequately addressed until 1946, when Dean Walter Harrison Hitchler informed the Board of Trustees of the Law School that he was having difficulty locating suitable housing for students.  On March 1, 1946, the Board of Trustees authorized the formation of a committee to explore raising funds for the construction of a dormitory.  The committee submitted its report at a special meeting of the Trustees on February 1, 1947, indicating that the project could be undertaken.  Thereafter, a campaign began to raise funds from alumni for the project.

In 1949, architects Walter Karcher and Livingston Smith, from Philadelphia, were hired to design the dormitory, which would occupy an empty tract of land next to the Law School that was purchased in 1932.  The plans for the dormitory called for the construction of five interconnected buildings.  One building was to house an apartment for Dean Hitchler.  Construction of the dormitory began on February 11, 1951.

The entire dormitory complex was named the Sadler Curtilage, in honor of the late Honorable Wilbur F. Sadler, former president of the Board of Trustees and one of the Law School’s Incorporators.  Within the complex, the main building was named after Dean Hitchler, and the remaining four buildings were each named after Dr. C. Scott Althouse of the Board of Trustees and former faculty members Joseph McKeehan, A.J. White Hutton, and the Honorable Fred S. Reese.  The dormitory was dedicated in a ceremony on June 7, 1952 with Governor John S. Fine, Class of 1914, delivering the dedication address.

The Sadler Curtilage was renovated in 1988, thanks to a gift from Dr. Jacob Levinson, Class of 1928.  As a result of this renovation, the Sadler Curtilage was renamed the Levinson Curtilage.  The Levinson Curtilage was dedicated in a ceremony in June, 1989.

Aerial Photo of Demolition

The Curtilage was demolished in 2008 as part of the Trickett Hall renovation and construction of Lewis Katz Hall.

Trickett Hall and Lewis Katz Hall

 

 

Dickinson Law Approved By American Bar Association

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The American Bar Association (ABA), which was founded in 1878, “is committed to advancing the rule of law across the United States and beyond by providing practical resources for legal professionals, law school accreditation, model ethics codes and more.”

The Dickinson School of Law was approved by the ABA on December 28, 1931.  At the time, Dickinson was one of three law schools in Pennsylvania to have been approved by the ABA.  The other two law schools were the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh.  Below is an excerpt from the announcement that appeared in The Dickinson Alumnus, regarding the ABA’s approval:

The approval followed a rigorous inspection conducted by representatives of the American Bar Association some months ago and places the Law School on an equal rating with the best schools for legal training in the country.

The standards set by the American Bar Association are very high and recognition is granted to only a limited number of schools which meet these requirements.  In addition to the standards as to course of instruction, curriculum and number of instructors, each school is also required to have an ample law library for research and study.

The Law School has been showing marked progress and recent graduations have been remarkably successful in the bar examinations.  Dean Hitchler recently announced that twenty-five of the twenty-eight graduates of last June have passed their bar examinations and have been admitted to practice.  This record in so short a time is a very unusual one.

Place Dickinson Law School on Approved List, The Dickinson Alumnus, February 1932, p. 9.

The Ghost (and second Dean) of Dickinson Law: Walter Harrison Hitchler

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Have you heard unexplained noises while studying in the Law Library late at night?  If so, then it is possible you have encountered the spirit of Dickinson Law’s second Dean, Walter Harrison Hitchler.

Dean Walter Harrison Hitchler

Walter Harrison Hitchler was born on February 20, 1883 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.  As a youth, he attended Harry Hillman Academy in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.  He received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Virginia in 1905.  After graduation, he worked as an editor for the Michie Publishing Company before becoming a member of the faculty at Dickinson Law in the fall of 1906.

In the summer of 1928, Dean William Trickett, realizing that his health was failing, wrote a letter to Hitchler, indicating that “I think you are the member of the faculty on whom the deanship now properly devolves.”  Hitchler was appointed as Dean of the Law School in 1930.

Hitchler faced many challenges as Dean, including World War II.  To sustain the Law School during World War II, Dean Hitchler devised a plan that would allow for an accelerated program for law students and a liberal return policy for those who found their studies interrupted by the War.

Hitchler’s additional accomplishments are too numerous to efficiently summarize.  In 1933, he moved for the Law School’s readmittance to the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).  The Law School was readmitted to that organization in 1934.

Under Dean Hitchler’s guidance, the Law School began publishing a weekly student newspaper called the Bill of Particulars.  Hitchler also revived the Law School’s yearbook, under a new name, Res Ipsa Loquitur, in 1941.

Dean Hitchler played a vital role in the construction of a dormitory on the Law School campus.  The Sadler Curtilage, which included a section named after Dean Hitchler, opened in 1952.  The Curtilage included an apartment, which was occupied by Dean Hitchler.

Hitchler was considered an expert in the field of criminal law, writing many articles, as well as a book, The Law of Crimes, on the subject.  Hitchler taught courses in equity, pleadings, bailments, and criminal law, but he was most remembered by his students for his criminal law course, where he was fond of using colorful hypotheticals to demonstrate his point.

“Suppose I take a saw, go to the [Cumberland Valley] Railroad Station and chop off Mr. Burke’s head.”  Junior History, Microcosm (1916).

“If I were to hit Mr. Magarick on the head with a baseball bat – the violence that was verbally practiced on me because I sat up front, was legion.”  Pat Magarick, Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian, Bill of Particulars, (May 1977).

Upon Dean Hitchler’s retirement:

“Ours is the last class.  No other will be hit over the head with a baseball bat in the interest of illustrating some fine point of criminal law.”  Dedication, Res Ipsa Loquitur (1955).

“We all had our chance to be hit on the head with a baseball bat…[T]hose assaults and batteries will long be remembered…and we thank him for them.”  Class History, Res Ipsa Loquitur (1956).

Despite these ongoing hypothetical assaults on students in his criminal law classes, Hitchler was well-known for his generosity.  He often paid students’ tuition out of his own pocket.  In his Last Will and Testament, he bequeathed most of his estate, the equivalent of more than $300,000, to the Law School.

Hitchler on his bicycle.  This bicycle remains a part of the Law School Archives Collection.

After his retirement, Hitchler remained at the Law School as an advisor to students and faculty.  He continued to reside in the Curtilage during that time.  He passed away at a local hospital on February 5, 1959.

However, it appears that Hitchler’s spirit never left the Law School.  According to an article in the Bill of Particulars, unexplained noises began to be heard in the Law School shortly after Dean Hitchler’s passing.  One such report came from a long-time professor of the Law School, William H. Dodd, who reported hearing “a concussion or crash of such deafening intensity that I was thoroughly shocked.”  Dodd reported the incident to the police, who searched the building and found nothing.  Former Dean Burton R. Laub, author of The Dickinson School of Law:  Proud and Independent, also reported hearing footsteps in the Law School when no one was around.  Mystery Haunts Law School, Bill of Particulars (October 30, 1968).

Yet, perhaps the most telling evidence of a spectral visitor occurred when a woman cleaning Dean Hitchler’s empty apartment was frightened by a man stepping out of one of the rooms, wearing a purple and yellow robe.  It was Hitchler’s custom to wear a purple and yellow robe for lounging.  What made the incident even more interesting is that the woman was new to the Law School and had never met or seen Hitchler in person.  Therefore, she could not have known this fact about Hitchler.  Mystery Haunts Law School, Bill of Particulars (Oct. 30, 1968).

In case you are frightened by these tales of mysterious happenings, don’t be.  By all accounts, Hitchler loved the Law School dearly.  Therefore, if Hitchler’s spirit remains, he surely remains only to ensure that all is well with the School that he loved so much.  After all, “what revered institution has not its friendly ghost to stand guard over it?”  Burton R. Laub, The Dickinson School of Law:  Proud and Independent (1983).

Dickinson Law Alumni Weekends Through the Years

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Last week, we took a look back at early alumni gatherings.  As we approach Alumni Weekend + Convocation 2018 (September 21-23), here is a look back at other Alumni Weekend gatherings.

 

Dickinson Law Joins The Association of American Law Schools (AALS)

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The Dickinson School of Law applied, and was approved, for admission to The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) on August 12, 1912.  The AALS was founded in 1900, “to elevate the standards of legal education in an era when it was still possible to become a lawyer through apprenticeship or self-study.”

Upset over an inspection report from the AALS, Dean Trickett withdrew the law school’s membership in 1924.  The contents of this report are unknown, and it is unclear from historical records what upset Dean Trickett about the report.  Nonetheless, Dean Trickett’s letter, which remains in the Law School’s Archives collection,1 is another example of Dean Trickett’s love and high regard for the law school.  Below is an excerpt from Dean Trickett’s letter:

“This school is now in its thirty-fifth year.  Its alumni have in large measure, attained useful and conspicuous places at the bars of their respective states.  At the present time five judges of the Courts of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania are our graduates.  An impressive number of graduates have been district attorneys, and members of the legislatures.  We have the unique distinction of being the only law school of this state, which is represented on the highest court, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.  Of the seven members of that court, two are graduates of the Dickinson School of Law.”

“We have built up a library of over 6000 volumes.  The morale of our students is equal to that of the members of the best schools.  We could not deprecate a comparison of their diligence, intelligence, and capacity to acquire a lawyer’s qualifications, with those of the students of richer and older schools, whose prestige – of a shadowy property – may seem greater.”

Dean Trickett’s successor as dean, Walter Harrison Hitchler, reapplied for membership to the AALS.  This application was granted on December 27, 1934.  The Law School’s membership in AALS continues today.

1 The full text of Dean Trickett’s letter entire letter can also be found in former Dean Burton R. Laub’s book, The Dickinson School of Law : Proud and Independent.

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