(Read more about LBC founder and first president Henry J. Heydt in the Fall 2023 issue of The ECHO Magazine.)
As we look back on 90 years of history, we reflect on the original “homes” of Lancaster Bible College. Then known as Lancaster School of the Bible, the college was located at three different sites from 1933 to 1957 before permanently moving to today’s main campus at 901 Eden Road.
1933-1934
West Orange and Pine Streets
Mr. Futer, who was part of Rev. Heydt’s Moravian church and owned Convention Hall, graciously allowed the first LSB students to hold class in a room in the building’s southeast corner. There was no library, no tuition and no faculty salaries.
1934-1939
211-213 North Duke Street
The two-story former fire hall later became an apartment building, and the second floor at the time of LSB’s occupancy was used as a prayer room. While the rooms were small, several classes were able to meet at the same time. Students lived off campus, and Wayne Gehman (’41) gave this perspective on student life: “Four of us lived on Green Street in an old bakery and had a little mission for the children of the area. We heated the two former offices with an old wood-burning cook stove. I recall one of my jobs was to go to the local bakery and get day-old products. I’d simply ask for 25 cents worth of day-old bread. Bless that lady! She would throw in pies, buns, bread and fill up the sack. She knew we were hungry. Jobs were hard to find. For example, we would walk 3-4 miles out to the farms during haymaking and wheat harvest to earn a few dollars to help make our way through school.”
Gehman married Elizabeth “Beth” (House ’42), a native of Canada, while they were both studying at LSB.
1939-1957
128-130 North Mulberry Street
Dr. Roy Becker and Paul D. Flory purchased the North Mulberry Street property for the school in 1939, when LSB was also officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania. On Nov. 25, the Articles of Incorporation were presented to the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and the Decree of Incorporation was granted on Dec. 15. The first Corporation members were Ellwood Baer, Roy D. Becker, J. Hoffman Gerber, Henry J. Heydt, Robert Kircher, Kenneth Miles and Paul Wilson.
During World War II, the 1942-43 academic year saw enrollment drop from 33 students to 19. In 1944, LSB officially became Lancaster School of the Bible and School of Theology, and remodeling of the carriage house began in 1947 to serve as the first men’s dormitory. The years of 1949-52 were important for college publications, as the first yearbook was published in 1949, the Alumni Association began in 1950, and The Alumni Informer was first published in 1951. The library got its start in 1952 with an initial gift of $36.75 from Miss Arlene Wolfe.
Always with a heart for the Jewish people, it was this calling that ultimately drew Heydt away from LSB while at the North Mulberry Street location. He resigned in 1953 to move to New York to work full time with the American Board of Missions to the Jews.
Who Were the Original Eight?
The first eight LSB daytime students who were present for the first day of class on Sept. 25, 1933:
Harold Byler
Robert Duffey
Jonathon King
Mildred Landis
Wilbur Martin
Amos Nissley
Daniel Rife
Helen Unruh
