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William Penn Charter History & Timeline

In founding his school, William Penn set out to create an educated citizenry because he knew the future of his new colony depended upon the potential of its people. His vision was unique and progressive.
1689: Time-Honored Education

The William Penn Charter School has been in continuous operation for more than 325 years, since its founding in 1689, and proudly traces its origin and name to William Penn. Although it has changed names, locations and curriculum during that time (the original name was the Public Grammar School), Penn Charter's Quaker roots have remained constant.

Penn's Vision

Penn knew that the success of his colony depended upon an educated citizenry. He wrote to Philadelphians in 1689 urging them to organize a school on the banks of the Delaware River. The school that Penn founded was different from schools elsewhere. Penn wanted his school to offer a new kind of education that would prepare young people to be teachers, merchants, builders and farmers, as well as political and professional leaders. When the school opened in 1689 on the south side of High Street, now Market Street, the progressive curriculum taught science in addition to Latin, Greek and Hebrew. 

1697: The First "Public" School

William Penn's unique concept was to create a school that would educate not only to the wealthy but also students of limited means. Public charity was a basic rule of Quaker life, and Penn specified that poor children in Pennsylvania were to be educated for free. As early as 1697 the Overseers he appointed to govern the school established a fund so that the children of the poor could attend. Penn Charter has a long history of access and was among the first to offer: education to different religions (1689), financial aid (1701), education for girls (1754) and education for all races (1770). Betsy Ross, African-American abolitionist and businessman James Forten, and Roberts Vaux, the man who led the movement for a public school law in Pennsylvania, were all students of the original Penn Charter. 

1920: A Move to the "Country"

Penn Charter was originally a downtown urban school, but Mott Jones wanted a larger space, outside the city, where students could breath in fresh air and test themselves in athletic contests on fields of green. The search for a campus that could accommodate the academic and athletic needs of an ever-growing student body—from a broader and broader radius stretching west and north of Philadelphia and even into New Jersey—took more than 50 years. The school's relocation to School House Lane in 1920 was worth the wait. We have a green, wide-open 47-acre campus that is still in the city. That's appealing to a lot of different kinds of families who come here from around the region and feel comfortable.

1875: United as the William Penn Charter School

Under the guidance of the Gurneyite Friends, a group of schools operating under the original 1711 Charter consolidated as a private all-boys college preparatory school in 1875. Overseers hired Richard Mott Jones, a dynamic education reformer, as headmaster and purchased a residence at 12th and Market Streets into a school house. From that location, Penn Charter grew quickly and gained a national reputation for excellence. Latin was again an important subject; students with interests in music, art, literature and science expressed those interests in extracurricular activities, including a mandolin club, debating society and creating writing.

1980: Return to Coeducation

Richard Mott Jones' daughters were Penn Charter students and, throughout the 20th century, girls enrolled in kindergarten and first grade. Penn Charter became fully coed again in 1980, and graduated the first modern coed class in 1992. 

1887: First PC-GA Football Game

When the first PC/GA football game was played in 1887, the ball was round, or very close to it. The game was more kicking, less throwing, more like rugby. The GA boys (pictured) won that first game, 20-6.

1887: Creation of the Inter-Ac

The Inter-Academic League was formed in 1887, with Headmaster Richard Mott Jones providing support for PC, and GA teacher George H. Deacon and Headmaster William Kershaw acting for GA.

Henry M. "Dick" Merritt

Henry M. "Dick" Merritt came to Penn Charter in 1912 after graduation from Yale and became one of PC's most prominent early coaches. In 1922, after PC's 10th straight title, the New York Herald wrote: "[Penn Charter's] consistent support of football for nearly forty years, by providing the very best coaching possible, and adhering to strict rules of eligibility and insisting on high scholarship, furnishes a most substantial reason for the high position football has gained for itself all over the country."

PC Football Alumni

When PC beat GA 57-0 in 1924, two of the school's greatest players ever were on the field, Marty Brill and Barney Berlinger. Brill went on to play for Notre Dame, and Berlinger was a three-time winner of the college decathlon at the Penn Relays; Berlinger finished fourth in the 1928 Olympics and a sever hamstring injury kept him out in 1932.

Spectators

High school football drew big crowds in the early days; newspaper accounts report that 6,000 attended the 1922 game and 7,000 in 1934. Crowds shrank as professional football grew in popularity. Today the stands are filled mostly with loyalists for either the Patriots or the Quakers.

1986: 100th Anniversary

For the 100th anniversary game in 1986, the two schools worked together to create memorabilia. This game was played on GA's Deacon Field, and quarterbacks Mike Skoczynski (PC) and Matt Basili (GA) shared the trophy that day.

1990s: Co-Ed Competittion

What began as an all-boys football contest, and then contests for other boys sports, opened to girls in the 1990s when both schools became co-ed. Boys water polo was added in 2001, and the latest addition was girls water polo, added in 2008.

Pep Rallies

Pep rallies and sales of buttons and T-shirts pump up school spirit in the days leading up to the Big Day.

Game-Winning Plays


GA won the 1938 game 6-0 with a thrilling score in the last five minutes. In recent years, PC won the 2007 football game with a thrilling final play, a hook and ladder pass from John Ryan, to Blaise Fullen, to Eddie Bambino for the game-winning touchdown.