Horology school5/16/2023 Peoria soon gained an international reputation as students from all over the United States and many foreign countries enrolled at Bradley to learn watchmaking. It was the first building in the United States to be constructed solely for use as a school of horology. Known as Horology Hall, it was designed by Henry Ives Cobb, architect for the University of Chicago and several buildings at the Columbian Exposition. The school then became known as the Horological Department of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, and a new, large building made of Bedford stone was erected specifically to accommodate its growth. This was just one of the many projects into which she poured her energies.Īfter briefly being housed inside a building of the Peoria Watch Company, a fire in 1896 led Bradley to incorporate the horological school into Bradley Polytechnic Institute, which she endowed in 1897. Bradley offered a larger building with all the necessary equipment, and in 1892, she bought and moved the Indiana-based school-with its 100 students, full staff of teachers and all-to Peoria. By this time, philanthropist Lydia Moss Bradley of Peoria had become interested in the school and the idea of assisting young men and women who desired to learn the trade. The school was a major success, but after six years, it was beginning to outgrow its accommodations. As a result, in 1886, the Parsons Horological Institute-the first watchmaking school in the country-opened in La Porte, Indiana. After reading a letter in a journal from a young man asking if there was a school where one could learn the watch trade, Parsons decided to establish such a school. An increased demand for skilled workers in his trade also fueled the idea. Parsons of Indiana, who felt that what he had spent most of his life learning to do could be taught in substantially less time at a proper school. The idea for a watchmaking school was first conceived by J.R. This new clock face, which bears Roman numerals similar to the original design, is a fitting symbol for the beginnings of the institution… The clock tower in Bradley University’s historic Westlake Hall recently received a facelift as part of a major renovation and expansion of the university’s second oldest building, expected to be complete this summer. Currently undergoing major renovations as part of the Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance, Bradley University’s Westlake Hall got its start as a school of horology-the art of making timepieces.
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