President: 1924-1928
Fr. Charles Lyons, S.J., served as Georgetown's 38th president from 1924-1928. Fr. Lyons oversaw the construction of New North and a new wing for the hospital, which has since been converted into student housing.
Early Jesuit and Academic Career
After high school, Charles W. Lyons worked in the wool industry, but he studied Latin on his own and joined the Young Men’s Catholic Association of the Immaculate Conception Church in Boston. Through the Immaculate Conception Church, Lyons encountered the Jesuits and soon left his job and entered the novitiate on August 14, 1890. A year in, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Georgetown where he served as a prefect on the small boys’ side for one year before returning to Frederick. After his juniorate, Lyons went to Woodstock to study Philosophy for three years. In 1904, Fr. Lyons was ordained, and two years later he returned to Georgetown as the prefect of discipline.
In 1908, Fr. Lyons was appointed president of Gonzaga College. A year later, he became president of St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia. In 1914, Fr. Lyons was appointed president of Boston College. After leaving Boston College in 1918, he pursued pastoral work and then returned to Boston College as a professor in metaphysics and as the head of the philosophy department. In October 1924, Fr. Lyons succeeded Fr. John Creeden and became the thirty-eighth president of Georgetown University.1
New North Construction
Fr. Lyons spent much of his presidency away from the University as he continued to lead retreats and preach. Under Fr. Lyon’s presidency, Fr. Creeden’s fundraising drive lost steam and ended far short of its desired $5 million goal. 2With fewer funds than expected, Fr. Lyons chose to abandon the quadrangle and athletic field envisioned by Fr. Creeden for a more modest brick dorm on ground west of the Old North building.
The new brick dorm cost less than half the estimated cost of the memorial dorm. Construction began in the spring of 1924, but was delayed for three months after a brick-layers’ strike among the labor unions. The building was finally completed in September 1926 and providing housing for an additional 250 students. 3The building, which became known as New North, also featured four lecture rooms, including a large tiered hall, a central heating plant, and the drill hall and rifle range for the University ROTC program. After New North opened, Fr. Lyons oversaw a massive renovation of Old North to provide additional classrooms and offices for student services.
New North doubled the available housing, and the college’s enrollment grew to more than 800 students by the 1926-1927 school year. Fr. Lyons introduced an alternate curriculum and increased electives which allowed the University to offer a more modern education that attracted portions of the Catholic middle class. Fr. Lyons was forced to expand the lay faculty in order to accommodate the growing student body. The University’s faculty in 1920 included twenty-four Jesuits and six laymen, but by 1927, the laymen on the faculty numbered twenty-seven and the Jesuits twenty-five. With this increase in lay faculty, the University was forced to raise tuition to fund their salaries. By 1928, board and tuition had risen by nearly 30% to $1,000.4
Loyola Hall Construction
Fr. Lyons also oversaw the addition of a new building to Georgetown University Hospital which extended to Prospect Place. Costing approximately $250,000, the new wing provided a new administrative department, including doctors’ offices, a new treasury and filing department, and superintendent’s office. The new space also included twenty-seven private rooms for the Franciscan Sisters in charge of the hospital, six large wards, four model diet kitchens, a new chapel, eleven clinic rooms, and three modern laboratories. 5Construction on the hospital’s new wing was completed in 1928 and today forms Loyola Hall in the LXR dorm.
In September of 1928, Fr. Lyons’ term as University president ended, and he was succeeded by Fr. William Coleman Nevils.6
- 1“Father Charles W. Lyons.” Woodstock Letters, Vol. LXVIII, 1939, pp.346-54.
- 2Emmett Curran, Robert. “Toward a Greater Georgetown, 1889–1928.” 2010, p.90.
- 3“New North Increases Rooming Capacity.” The Hoya. 7 Oct. 1926, p.8.
- 4“Toward a Greater Georgetown, 1889–1928.” pp.100-01.
- 5“Work Started on Hospital Addition.” The Hoya. 14 Oct. 1926, p.1.
- 6“Fr. Nevils President of G.U.” The Hoya. 21 Sept. 1928, p.1.
