Establishing a College at Easton

On Christmas Eve 1824, the Easton Centinel carried a notice calling upon residents of Northampton County "friendly to the establishment of a COLLEGE at Easton" to meet three days later at White's Hotel on Center Square. Local lawyers James Madison Porter and Joel Jones, along with Jacob Wagener, a local miller's son, led the effort to plan for a college "combining a course of practical Military Science with the course of Literature and General Science pursued in the Colleges of our Country." The founders voted to name their new college "Lafayette College" after the French hero of the Revolution Marquis de Lafayette, whom Porter had recently met in Philadelphia. The governor of Pennsylvania signed the new college's charter on March 9, 1826.

In 1832, the Rev. George Junkin agreed to move the curriculum and student body of the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania from Germantown to Easton and to take up the Lafayette College charter. Classes in mathematics and the classics began that year in a rented farmhouse on the south bank of the Lehigh River. In 1832 the College acquired nine acres of land on the hill across Bushkill Creek from Easton and the area soon became known as "College Hill." The first of the College's own buildings were built in 1834.

By 1900 enrollment stood at about 300, passed the 500 mark in 1910, and reached 1,000 during the 1920s. It more than doubled again after World War II. Today the campus comprises about 100 acres of land and more than 60 buildings, as well as various outlying properties and structures on College Hill and elsewhere. With over 2,300 students currently enrolled in over 40 different fields of study, Lafayette College stands today as one of the most academically competitive, independent, undergraduate institutions in the nation.

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. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (September 6, 1757-May 20, 1834), or Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in the province of Auvergne in south central France. Lafayette was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution.

. After playing a key role in the founding of Lafayette College, James Madison Porter served as President of the Board of Trustees from 1826-1852. Porter also served as Secretary of War under President John Tyler and held high positions with several railroad companies.