Part II The
Early Years of the International House of Philadelphia and its Purchase of 3905
Spruce Street
1911 - 1922After Potts
family's tenure at 3905 Spruce Street, the Christian Association of the University
of Pennsylvania acquired the property for use by the International Students House.
The earliest history of this organization is summarized in a printed invitation
to the dedicatory ceremony of the new International House at 3701 Chestnut Street,
held on 22 November 1970: In 1908,
Dr. A. Waldo Stevenson, while crossing the Penn Campus, chanced upon a group of
Chinese students. Striking up a conversation with them, he learned that he was
the first Philadelphian to befriend them. He was touched by their evident loneliness
and invited them into his home where he learned more of their unhappy situation
and of others like them. Dr. Stevenson began entertaining foreign
students in his modest apartment. By 1910, his efforts had expanded so much that
he took the problem to the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania,
which adopted his work as an active program. In 1917, the
University purchased the property at 3905 Spruce Street, and on January 1, 1918,
Philadelphia's International Students House began its operations. Now, after a
ten-year sojourn at 15th and Cherry Streets, International House is again on campus.
Welcome back. |
| The Catalogue of the University of
Pennsylvania [for] 1911-1912 was the first to name A. Waldo
Stevenson as the "Foreign Mission Secretary" of the Christian Association. The
Catalogue for 1914-15 stated that Stevenson had charge of the department
of "International Student Relations." This job description was further elaborated
in the Catalogue for the following year: "one Secretary of the [Christian]
Association devotes his entire time to the foreign students attending the University."
| 
Christian Association-Foreign Students
at the home of Mr. & Mrs. A. Waldo Stevenson, c. 1912 |
On 18 December 1917 the front page of The Pennsylvanian
(predecessor to the Daily Pennsylvanian) announced "A.W. Stevenson
At Chapel: Well-Known Foreign Student Secretary to Speak to Students Today." The
text of the article was as follows: A.W. Stevenson,
a graduate of the College and at present secretary for the foreign students at
the University, will be to-day's speaker at chapel. Mr. Stevenson has for a number
of years done considerable work along social lines. He was a missionary to Cuba,
and at the site where the University House is at present he organized missionary
work. The latter continued until his connection Pennsylvania, four years ago.
On numerous occasions during the past few years Mr. Stevenson has given
his home on Larchwood avenue openly to the foreign students for get-togethers.
He has held socials and entertainments in Houston Hall and other homes, and has
been the center of a great deal of congenial spirit existing among the men from
the far-off countries. That same month, December
1917, the work of the Christian Association (CA) in welcoming international students
to Penn received a huge boost. On 11 December the CA purchased the property at
3905 Spruce Street from the heirs of Joseph Potts and on New Year's Day 1918,
it was opened to the foreign students of the University. The front page of The
Pennsylvanian for Thursday, 3 January offered the following story:
FOREIGN STUDENTS' HOME
OPENED ON NEW YEAR'S DAY
New Headquarters Made Possible
Through the Generosity of Wm. M. Potts
Through the efforts of the Christian Association of the University, a Home
for Foreign Students was opened New Year's Day at 3905 Spruce street. Although
most colleges and universities in the past have had comfortable headquarters for
the students from far-off countries, Pennsylvania was laboring at a disadvantage
in this respect until William M. Potts, an alumnus, practically gave $30,000 to
start the movement. He sold his home, worth $50,000, for the reduced sum of $20,000,
thereby making his contribution about $30,000. Mr. Potts is a director of the
Fourth National Bank and president of the Enterprise Transit Company, both in
this city. Dr. A.W. Stevenson will be in charge of the new home. Dr. Stevenson
has been quite successful in the past four years while acting as secretary for
the foreign students. On numerous occasions he entertained at his home and in
Houston Hall, but as both of these places were unsatisfactory for several reasons,
the new headquarters are welcomed all the more by the foreign students.
| 
Living Room, Potts Mansion, 3905 Spruce,
ca. 1917 | Rooms throughout the building
will probably be equipped as memorials by alumni and other Philadelphians interested
in the furthering of cordial relations among foreign students. On the first floor
there is space for a huge reading and lounging room, and fifteen other large rooms
on the upper stories will be equipped for living rooms. A dining room will also
be arranged. | |
There are at present 150 foreign students
in the University, representing forty different nations. China is especially well
represented. In commenting on the Far East, Mr. Po Ling Chang, Head Master of
the Nan Kai School, Tientsin, the leading boys' preparatory school of North China,
said at the opening on Tuesday, "Just now, China's great need is Christianity,
which, I believe, will give to the Chinese the love of service and spirit of sacrifice
of which they are in real need." He spoke on the "True Internationalism from the
Point of View of a Chinese Scholar." Wilfred H. Schoff spoke in the afternoon
also, using as his subject, "Latin America as a Factor for World Freedom." Dr.
Schoff is secretary of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum and as consular representative
of some of the South American Republics, has been for a number of years in close
contact with Latin American affairs. Eight years
later, on the occasion of Stevenson's retirement, the following brief article
appeared in The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania.
This account provides additional contemporary evidence of the institutional use
of the property: After fourteen years, Mr. and
Mrs. Stevenson are retiring from the International Students' House. In the college
year 1911-1912 they began in their own home this work of cultivating friendly
international relations. This endeavor began at first with a Friday evening social
gathering of students and American friends, which has since become a regular weekly
function, and which has been held quite regularly every Friday evening during
each college year. In those early [years] the conviction soon grew in Mr.
Stevenson's mind that, in addition to those weekly social functions, there was
need of a larger social headquarters, where the students from abroad could meet
each other daily and where the different nationalities could hold their own club
and social meetings, and also meet with Americans around the dinner table. It
took six years to cultivate in the minds of Philadelphians the idea of an 'International
House,' to be typical, as far as possible, of an American home. For years a house
was vacant on Spruce Street, which had been the Potts family mansion. It seemed
admirably adapted for this particular purpose, and was a dream in Mr. Stevenson's
mind. During that whole length of time he had regular recurring interviews with
Mr. W[illiam] W. Potts, who owned this old homestead. Finally, Mr. Potts was so
impressed with the idea that he sold the old mansion, which had cost originally
over $100,000, to the Christian Association for $20,000. This represented a gift
by Mr. Potts of about $30,000, as the property was assessed at $50,000 by the
city. The work was transferred there on January 1, 1918, and after having
passed through seven successful years it seems assured that the idea of the International
House has now planted itself in Philadelphia's thought. The House has endeared
itself to Americans as well as to those from abroad. Its associations have woven
themselves into the life and thought of many who have found here the opportunity
to form life-long international friendships. Still
another useful description is that which appeared in a Christian Association booklet
entitled Christianity and the College Man and published in 1922:
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS' HOUSE
Many distinguished visitors come from week to week to the International Students'
House on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. One Friday night last May,
Mr. Sebastiao Sampaio, attache of the Brazilian Embassy at Washington, was a guest
of honor. The same evening a varied and interesting program of peasant music and
folk dances was being given by a group of Ukranian students in illustration of
life in their part of the world. Mr. Sampiao had been a student in Europe, and
entered heartily into the fun of the evening. He also gave a glowing account of
the preparations for the approaching celebration in Brazil of the Centennial of
Independence. At a late hour of the Sunday evening of that same week came
a call from the headmaster of a large normal school in Japan, Dr. H. Hishinuma,
a former graduate of the University of Chicago. He had been sent by his government
to study the normal school systems in this country. A guest room was available
at the House. By telephone two of the leading Japanese students were reached,
and came for a conference, one of them a former pupil of the visitor in Japan.
The next day Mr. Hew Fan Un, one of the managers of the Bank of Canton,
China, a delegate to the International Trade Convention meeting here, came to
get in touch with some of our students from South China. It did not take long
to find one from Hong Kong in the Dental School, and also another from Canton
in the Architectural School. In a little informal dinner group, Mr. Un met his
fellow countrymen. On the same evening were present in another dinner group
two recent graduates of a Western College, who were passing through on their way
to educational and missionary work in India. The next day a student from
Chile, who had just completed a course of studies in Oxford and Cambridge, and
at the Sorbonne in Paris, was our guest at dinner to meet some of the students
from South America. A Cosmopolitan
University These are glimpses of just one week's
visitors. The University of Pennsylvania has always been a cosmopolitan institution.
Nearly fifty nations are represented in the student body each year. Many are graduates
of universities in their home lands, or are sufficiently prepared to enter here
with advanced standing. A very large proportion of those who have returned to
their native lands are now occupying positions of highest power and influence
in the commercial life or government service there. These students from
abroad, therefore, do occupy a strategic position in the work of developing friendly
international relations. In order not to neglect this field of opportunity, a
considerable number of friends and of the University, alumni and their wives and
others, have for several years past been inviting to their homes in the city and
in the suburbs some of these splendid students, not only to be of service to them,
but also because they have found that through such contacts they are enriching
their own lives by a wider and more enlightened world vision. The
Hospitality Clearing House Five years ago, to broaden this work of international
hospitality, a most desirable piece of property was secured, partly as a gift
of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. M. Potts. It is virtually on the University campus, at 3905
Spruce Street, and is a fine type of old Philadelphia mansion of fifty years ago.
This has now become an International Student Headquarters, around which much of
the social life of foreign students has revolved. It serves as a meeting place
for the different national groups and as an auditorium for international entertainments
and conferences. The object, however, is not to make this House simply
a club for these men from afar, but, as far as possible, to make it a typical
American home, representing through it the hospitality of the City of Brotherly
Love. The Women's Hospitality Committee, the members of which have already been
opening their own homes, desire through this 'clearing house' to maintain continual
hospitality throughout the year to foreign visitors and students. The Secretary
and his family, Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Stevenson, live in the second floor apartment,
preside in the dining hall, and reproduce so far as possible the atmosphere of
a home, in the hope that the loneliness of living in a foreign land may be somewhat
mitigated through the friendships formed here.
'Open House' Nights Under the direction of the Secretary,
programs are arranged for 'Open House' gatherings every Friday night. These entertainments
during the past year have presented such varied aspects as a 'Japanese Night,'
a 'Chinese Night,' a 'Russian Night,' and other special evening programs, arranged
by the students of Ukraine, Rumania, and Chile; also special evenings of music
arranged by the Matinee Musical Club and other such organizations, as well as
by many prominent musicians who have volunteered their services.
Archival Sources Collections
of the University Archives and Records Center (UARC): "International
House, 1959-1986." News Bureau Collection (UPF 8.5), Subject Files, Box 138, File
Folder 4. Christian Association booklet entitled Christianity and
the College Man and published in 1922, pp. 10 and 11 (see photocopy in the
Alumni Record File of Alphaeus Waldo Stevenson, 1883 A.B.). "'Potts'
Mansion 3905 Spruce St." (photograph). Photograph Collection, Box 30, File
Folder 23. Philadelphia Department of Records:
Plan 20 S 9, Lots #123 and #124. Printed
Sources (Available at the University Archives)
The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania, June 1925,
pp. 649-50. Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania [for]
1911-1912 (Philadelphia: Published by the University, February 1912),
pp. 568-70. Also the Catalogue for 1914-15, pp. 545-46, and the Catalogue
for 1915-16, pp. 562-64. The Pennsylvanian, 18 December 1917,
3 January 1918. | For
more on the history of 3905 Spruce Street.... |
