Wagner College was founded in 1883 in
Rochester, New York, as the Lutheran Proseminary of Rochester. Its purpose was to prepare young men for admission to Lutheran seminaries and to ensure that they were sufficiently fluent in both English and German to minister to the large German immigrant community of that day. The school's six-year curriculum (covering the high-school and junior-college years) was modeled on the
German gymnasium curriculum. In 1886, the school was renamed Wagner Memorial Lutheran College, after a building in Rochester was purchased for its use by John G. Wagner in memory of his son.[6][7]
The college moved to the 38-acre (15 ha) former
Cunard estate on
Grymes Hill, Staten Island, in 1918. An Italianate villa called Westwood, the Cunard mansion (circa 1851), is extant (now Cunard Hall), as is the neighboring former hotel annex that was built in 1905 (initially named North Hall, now called Reynolds House). The college soon expanded to 57 acres (23 ha) after it acquired the neighboring Jacob Vanderbilt estate in 1922. In the 1920s, the curriculum began to move toward an American-style liberal arts curriculum that was solidified when the state of New York granted the college degree-granting status in 1928. The college admitted women in 1933 and introduced graduate programs in 1951. The college expanded further when it purchased the W.G. Ward estate in 1949 (current site of
Wagner College Stadium), and again in 1993, when the college acquired the adjacent property of the former
Augustinian Academy, which has largely remained wooded green space and athletic fields. The college now occupies 105 acres (42 ha) on the hill and has commanding views of the
New York Harbor, the
Verrazzano Bridge,
Downtown Brooklyn, and
Lower Manhattan.
New York City Writers Conference
From 1956 through the late 1960s, Wagner College was the home of the New York City Writers Conference, which brought some of the leading lights of the literary world to campus each summer. Instructors included
Saul Bellow,
Robert Lowell,
Edward Albee,
Kay Boyle and
Kenneth Koch. From 1961 to 1963, while English professor
Willard Maas directed the conference, it served as a training ground for poets of the New York School.[8]
Maas himself was a significant figure in the New York avant-garde world of the 1950s and 1960s; Edward Albee used Maas and his wife, experimental filmmaker
Marie Menken, as the models for his lead characters in the early masterwork, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?[9]
The Stanley Drama Award, which began as a prize given at the conclusion of the NYC Writers Conference, has provided encouragement for several notable playwrights, including:
Terrence McNally for This Side of the Door (1962), an early version of "And Things that Go Bump in the Night";
Adrienne Kennedy for Funnyhouse of a Negro (1963);
Lonne Elder III for an early version of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (1965), and
Jonathan Larson in 1993 for an early version of Rent.[10]
Campus
Prominent early buildings include Cunard Hall (ca. 1851); Reynolds House (1905); Kairos House (1918), a Craftsman Style cottage; and Main Hall (1930, restored 2012) and Parker Hall (1923), built in the Collegiate Gothic style. Main Hall provides classroom and office space and a theater auditorium. Parker Hall, first built as a dormitory, is used for faculty offices.
Two cottages built in the early 1920s provide administrative space for the college's Public Safety and Lifelong Learning offices.
Three dormitory facilities were constructed during the college's major building drive: Guild Hall (1951), Parker Towers (1964) and Harbor View Hall (1969), later complemented by Foundation Hall (2010), a residence hall for upperclassmen. About two-thirds of undergraduates live on campus.
Another dormitory building, Campus Hall (1957), now provides classroom and office space.
The Horrmann Library (1961) contains over 200,000 volumes and holds the collection and personal papers of poet
Edwin Markham.
The Megerle Science Building and Spiro Hall were opened in 1968, followed by the Wagner Union in 1970.
Two building projects have expanded earlier structures. In 1999, a significant expansion of the 1951 Sutter Gymnasium created the modern Spiro Sports Center. And in 2002, a pair of Prairie Style cottages constructed around 1905 were refurbished and joined by a bridge building into Pape Admissions House.
Three substantial resources on the physical history of the Wagner College campus have been published:
"Founding Faces & Places: An Illustrated History Of Wagner Memorial Lutheran College, 1869–1930," first published for Wagner College's 125th anniversary commemoration in 2008,[11]
"Wagner College Memories: A Photographic Remembrance of Grymes Hill" (2011),[12] and
"Wagner College History Tour," a three-part series published in the Winter 2015–2016, Fall 2016 and Summer 2017 issues of Wagner Magazine.[13][14][15]
Rankings
Wagner College's ranking in the 2023 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report is Regional Universities North, tied for #69.[16]
Wagner College offers athletic scholarships and competes at the
NCAA Division I level in all intercollegiate athletics. Football competes at the
NCAADivision IFCS – formerly I-AA – level.
Wagner is a member of the
Northeast Conference. Men's varsity intercollegiate teams are fielded in 10 sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, tennis, and track & field (indoor and outdoor) and men's water polo, which was established in fall 2016. Women's varsity intercollegiate teams are fielded in 14 sports: basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field (indoor and outdoor), and water polo, in addition to three newly added sports in fencing (2016), triathlon (2018) and field hockey, which was reinstated in 2018 and will compete in 2019.
Walt Hameline, in 38 years (1982–present) as the director of athletics and 34 years as head football coach at Wagner (1981–2014), won the school's only
National Championship with a 19–3 victory over the
University of Dayton in the 1987
NCAADivision IIIChampionship game (also known as the 1987
Stagg Bowl). He was named NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1987. During his 34-year coaching career, Hameline amassed an all-time record of 223–139–2 (.615) at Wagner College. Upon his retirement as head football coach following the 2014 regular season, those 223 victories ranked fifth among active head Football Championship Subdivision head coaches and remains in the top 10 among all
Division I-FCS coaches in the United States.
Notable Wagner sports coaches of the past include former Seton Hall University, NBA head coach and current
TV analyst
P.J. Carlesimo (head basketball coach 1976–1982), former Marquette University and Wagner head coach
Mike Deane,
Jim Lee Howell (head football coach 1947–1953), and former University of Florida head football coach
Dan Mullen (assistant football coach 1994–1995). In 2019, two NFL coaches who had previously been Wagner assistant coaches were elevated to defensive coordinator positions. Lou Anarumo now heads the
Cincinnati Bengals' defense, while Patrick Graham was formerly defensive coordinator for the
Miami Dolphins.
Wagner's campus has been featured in several films, television-show episodes, and advertisements. Shoot dates (where shown) are from Wagner College location contracts on file on campus:
"
School of Rock," 2003 film starring
Jack Black and
Joan Cusack. The Horace Green School exterior portrayed in the movie is Wagner College's Main Hall.[25]
"
Poster Boy," 2004 film which won the
Outfest Grand Jury Award for Best Screenwriting.
"Four Lane Highway," 2005 film (shot on campus April 18, 2004)[26]
"Exposing the Order of the Serpentine," 2006 film (shot on campus Jan. 5–6, 2005)[27]
"Bull," CBS TV series, "Behind the Ivy" (S4, E12, 2020). Filmed on campus November 18, 2019.[43]
"The King of Staten Island" (2020), loosely biographical film based on life of film's lead, Pete Davidson, directed by Judd Apatow. Filmed on campus June 10–17, 2019.[44]