Remember Peter Cooper’s dream as we approach The Cooper Union. It stands as a testament to his vision. The Cooper Union is a private college located in New York City. It sits on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan. Peter Cooper founded it in 1859. He envisioned a radical model for American higher education.
Cooper believed education should be accessible to all who qualify. This was regardless of race, religion, sex, wealth or social status. He declared it should be open and free to all. The Cooper Union was one of few American institutions to offer full-tuition scholarships. This practice ended in 2014. Now it offers half-tuition scholarships. In September 2024, the school announced a tuition-free senior year for the next four years.
Peter Cooper was a workingman’s son. He had less than a year of formal schooling. He designed America’s first steam railroad engine. Cooper made a fortune with a glue factory and iron foundry. He was the first president of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. This company laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable.
Cooper’s dream was to give talented young people a good education. It would be open and free to all. He dedicated the bulk of his wealth to The Cooper Union. Discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, or sex was expressly prohibited.
The Cooper Union began with adult education in night classes. Subjects included applied sciences and architectural drawing. There were also day classes for women. They studied photography, telegraphy, typewriting and shorthand. This was called the Female School of Design. The early institution had a free reading room. It was open day and night and the first in New York City.
The Cooper Union’s free classes evolved into three schools. These are the School of Art, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture and the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. Since 1859, The Cooper Union has educated thousands of artists, architects and engineers. Many became leaders in their fields.
The Cooper Union’s Foundation Building is an Italianate brownstone building. Fred A. Petersen designed it. He was a founder of the American Institute of Architects. It was the first structure in New York City to feature rolled-iron I-beams. Peter Cooper invented and produced these beams himself. The building was the first in the world to be built with an elevator shaft.
The Great Hall is in the basement level of the Foundation Building. Abraham Lincoln delivered a historic address there on February 27, 1860. The speech galvanized support for Lincoln. It helped him gain the Party’s nomination for the presidency. It is now referred to as the Cooper Union Address.
Other presidents have spoken in the Great Hall. These include Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mark Twain also spoke here.
In 2002, the school decided to generate revenue. It razed its engineering building. It was replaced with a commercial building. Its Hewitt Building was replaced with a new building called 41 Cooper Square. 41 Cooper Square is a modern, environmentally “green” design. It houses nine above-ground floors and two basements. In 2010, it became the first academic and laboratory structure in New York City to meet Platinum-level LEED standards.
The land under the Chrysler Building is owned by The Cooper Union’s endowment. As of 2009, The Cooper Union received 7 million dollars per year from this parcel.
Today, The Cooper Union continues to uphold Peter Cooper’s vision. It offers a world-class education in art, architecture and engineering. It remains a unique institution. It is dedicated to the belief that education is key to personal prosperity and civic virtue.