This image is the cover for the book Elizabethtown College, Campus History

Elizabethtown College, Campus History

For over 100 years, Elizabethtown College has been a source for superior higher education and town pride.


Established in 1899 as an academy with a college preparatory curriculum for high school students of the Church of the Brethren, Elizabethtown College evolved into a fully accredited private liberal arts institution. Located in the heart of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania's largest community of Amish, Mennonites, and Church of the Brethren, Elizabethtown College is home to the internationally recognized Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Known for its heritage of being founded by one of the Historic Peace Churches, Elizabethtown College hosts the Center for Global Understand and Peacemaking. Today, the college is a private institute for higher learning with dozens of buildings on its campus and a variety of academic concentrations dedicated to representing a wide diversity of religious and philosophical perspectives firmly rooted in its commitment to leadership, peace, and justice.

Jean-Paul Benowitz, Peter J. DePuydt

Jean-Paul Benowitz is the director of Student Transition Programs and assistant director of Academic Advising. A historian, he has taught for several years for the Department of History and Department of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College. He has published articles about Old Order Mennonite history and culture. Peter J. DePuydt is a reference librarian in the High Library and archivist for the Special Collections and Archives at Elizabethtown College. A historian and archeologist, he has published articles about the history of the Church of the Brethren and Elizabethtown College.

Arcadia Publishing