History
Founded as the Pennsylvania Female College on December 11, 1869, by Reverend William Trimble Beatty, Chatham was initially situated in the Berry mansion on Woodland Road off Fifth Avenue in the neighborhood of Shadyside. The campus today is composed of buildings and grounds from a number of former private mansions, including those of Andrew Mellon, Edward Stanton Fickes, George M. Laughlin Jr. and James Rea. It was renamed Pennsylvania College for Women in 1890, and as Chatham College in 1955. The name served to honor William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham and namesake of the City of Pittsburgh. The school gained university status from the Pennsylvania Department of Education on April 23, 2007 and publicly announced its new status on 2007-05-01, changing its name to Chatham University.
With elements designed for the original Andrew Mellon estate by the renowned Olmsted Brothers, the 39-acre (16 ha) Chatham campus was designated an arboretum in 1998 by the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. It features over 115 different varieties of species, including Japanese Flowering Crabapple, River Birch and Kentucky Coffee Tree. The Arboretum provides an outdoor classroom for students in the University’s Landscape Architecture and Landscape Studies programs, as well as an inviting place to stroll and to meditate.
In 2007, Chatham's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing was named one of the top five Innovative/Unique Programs by The Atlantic Monthly.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)