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The Rev. A. Waldo Stevenson received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1883 from
the University of Pennsylvania.  He
was a minister in the Philadelphia Presbytery, assistant editor of The Christian
Statesman from 1884-1891 and editor and publisher of The Christian State
in 1892. In 1908, he met a group of Chinese students in Philadelphia and befriended
them. Stevenson and his wife began to entertain foreign students in his apartment,
which began with a Friday evening social that became weekly. In 1910, he took
the problem to the Christian Association
of the University of Pennsylvania, and with the aid of Edward C. Wood, the association
adopted his work as an active program. He then became a missionary in Cuba until
1912. In 1917, the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania purchased
a manor at 3905 Spruce Street.
(Stevenson had had regular recurring interviews with Mr. W. W. Potts who had owned
it), and when the International Students'
House opened its doors on the first of January 1918, Stevenson became its
first director.
Stevenson believed that the key to success in this line
of work was love. He stated that "[i]f anyone love not his brother whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Upon retirement, he
was presented with a silver platter by F. Cyril James (of England), who was an
instructor at the Wharton School, on behalf of the foreign students.
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