Metzger Hall (1913-1963)

At his death in 1879, George Metzger, class of 1798, bequeathed his personal land and $25,000 to the town of Carlisle for the purpose of opening a college for women. To this end, a four-story, brick façade Victorian house was constructed at a cost of $30,000 on the two acres of Metzger property on North Hanover Street in 1881. On September 28 of that year, the Metzger Institute, a College for Young Ladies, was opened. The building provided Metzger students with a gymnasium, a dining room, and a library, as well as classroom and dormitory space. The rest of the campus included a tennis court and gardens. However, in 1913, as the Institute was struggling for funding, its trustees decided to lease the building rent-free to the local Dickinson College. The College would receive all income from the house, as long as the building was being used for the education of women.

From this time onward, Metzger Hall was home to the women of Dickinson College. As Metzger was six blocks from the main campus, residents dined, exercised, and entertained within its walls. By 1963, however, the building was in disrepair and only housed freshman women; representatives of the College therefore symbolically returned the building’s key to the Metzger Trustees that year. The property was sold shortly thereafter, and the building was subsequently razed to make way for fast-food restaurants and a gas station.