Life at Overbrook

The move to Overbrook meant that Philadelphia’s Jesuits finally had a real campus as well as a physical plant that they did not share with either a preparatory school or a parish church. The faculty and administration managed to maintain a curriculum based upon the centuries old Ratio Studiorum, but they were less successful in establishing a vibrant student life, like that at many other American colleges and universities, on a campus where no one resided. As an urban, commuter college, Saint Joseph’s would struggle for years to create a successful extra-curricular program, despite healthy increases in enrollment in a student body that continued to come overwhelmingly from Philadelphia.

As Father Brown had hoped, simply the announcement of the proposed move to Overbrook attracted more students than ever before. By creating extra classrooms in the corridors at Seventeenth and Stiles Streets, the college had been able to accommodate about 200 students by the time of the move. In the fall of 1930, enrollment stood at just over 350, and despite the tightening grip of the Great Depression, it rose to 403 the following autumn, and to 417 in 1932. In 1933, the worst year of the Depression, enrollment fell back slightly to 408 and dropped a bit further in 1934 to 397 students. But as economic conditions improved, the numbers began to rebound, reaching 425 in 1935 and 525 by 1939....

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