The Great Debate: Where Should the University of Washington Live?
As Seattle contemplated the future of the state's flagship university, President Charles Eliot of Harvard weighed in on the risks of isolated campuses versus the 'liberal atmosphere' of city centers.
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The proposal to change the location of the Washington state university from the heart of Seattle, where it is confined to ten acres, and place it at some point within six miles of the city, has given rise to a very spirited controversy. Opinion is divided as to the relative advantages of urban and suburban location. Mr. Joseph Shippen, of Seattle, has received a letter from President Eliot of Harvard, who writes: 'It is very difficult to carry on a university, properly so called, in an inaccessible country place. Some people have a notion that young men are safer in the country than in the city, and it is true that temptation to vice is more incessant in the city than in the country; but on the whole I do not observe that country boys are any better than city boys. The city has very great advantages in the way of society, rational amusement and a liberal atmosphere.' It may be worth noting that most of the universities have grown up through a long series of years in thickly settled communities. The land in Seattle between the two lakes is comparatively narrow and promises to be densely populated. Neither of the sites named is too far to be very easily accessible by boat or car line, and within ten years they will be practically a part of the city.
“A university does not expect to have students under 18 or 19 years of age; and if a young man of 18 cannot stand on his own feet, he is not likely to be kept upright even in the country.”
The debate over whether a university thrives better within the dense, 'liberal' urban fabric or a detached suburban campus is an ancient one in Seattle planning. The eventual move of the University of Washington to its current site in the Montlake/University District proved Eliot's foresight, as the city eventually grew to surround the once-'suburban' campus.
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