Emory Chapel was born out of a split in the Methodist Church congregation in Carlisle.  In the 1850’s, relations between college-oriented members and the rest of the congregation had become tense, and the college members made the decision to split from the Church.  In 1857, the college congregation acquired the lot at the northeast corner of South West Street and West Pomfret Street as the new location for their church.  The Victorian Gothic structure, designed by Thomas Balbirnie, became known as Emory Chapel, in memory of Robert Emory, the second Methodist president of Dickinson College.

From 1863 to 1866, Emory Chapel served a second purpose by holding classes for the Emory Female College, which was established as a wartime effort to further women’s education.  Sometime during the 1870’s, the two Methodist congregations reunified, with services moving from Emory Chapel to another location.  Dickinson College assumed the debts of Emory Chapel in 1877 and used the space for its Grammar School until 1886.

By the time then-President George Reed, of Dickinson College, offered the use of Emory Chapel to The Dickinson School of Law, the Chapel had fallen into a “very dilapidated state.”  William C. Allison, Esq. provided the funding to restore the Chapel into the Law School’s home.  The building was described as “admirably adapted for its purposes” in the 1890-1891 Catalog.

Class in Emory Hall

Emory Hall opened for classes on October 1, 1890.  However, it soon became apparent that despite the improvements made to the building, a new home for the school was required.  The Law School occupied Emory Hall through 1917, before moving to its new home, Trickett Hall, in January 1918.  Emory Hall was thereafter sold and torn down.

Law Library at Emory Hall

Those who attended the Law School while it was housed in Emory Hall remembered the building with fondness, as noted by this quote in the 1918 Microcosm from the Class of 1917’s historian, William P. Burke:

“We feel proud to be classed among those who pursued an entire law course in the “old” law school.  When the next term opens, our successors will enter a fine, new, thoroughly equipped law school building.  But no newness of structure, no change of equipment, and no increase in physical attractiveness of any other building can obliterate the pleasant memories of our three years in the “old” law school.  Such memories are impressed to remain.”