Could MLK’s Upland Dorm Room Become Public Place?

Could MLK’s Upland Dorm Room Become Public Place? — Delaware County (Pa) Council, yesterday, Feb. 7 approved a $10,000 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant to study turning the Old Main building on the Crozer Chester Medical Center campus in Upland into the MLK Center for Peace and Justice.

The Old Main was part of the Crozer Theological Seminary where Martin Luther King Jr. studied. His dorm room was in the Old Main.

Janet Lloyd Murphy of Middletown, whose idea the center is, gave a short presentation about the seminary before the vote.

Mrs. Murphy said the facility began as a teachers college but became a hospital during the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers were treated there and a Confederate soldier was actually housed in the room Rev. King would come to use.

Many of those treated had fought at Gettysburg.

Rev. King’s room is now apparently as storage space.

Mrs. Murphy has an excellent idea.

The building and surroundings are now owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. which desperately wants to get rid of them.

In other business, Council passed resolutions amending and restating the establishment of the Delaware County Heritage Commission. Council members described this as a routine bookkeeping matter.

Council also recognized February as Black History Month and American Heart Month.

Could MLK’s Upland Dorm Room Become Public Place