PMC History

Our History

Pennsylvania Military College history dates back to 1821 when John Bullock established the Bullock School for Boys to prepare young men for “entry to college.” In 1853, the school became Hyatt’s Select School for Boys under the direction of Theodore Hyatt, who purchased the school, which had been renamed the Alsop School for Boys when Samuel Alsop became headmaster.

According to tradition, Hyatt found his pupils performing drills with brooms in the gym in the fall of 1858. He then introduced military training to “develop the muscles, expand the chest, and impart an erect gentlemanly carriage ….”

In 1862, the academy moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the school’s name changed to the Pennsylvania Military Academy (PMA). PMA enrolled preparatory as well as college students until 1892, when it developed a more collegiate program. The school was moved to Chester in 1868 and, with the help of a group of local citizens, buildings for the Pennsylvania Military College were built.

PMC cadets became well known and acknowledged for their leadership, scholarship, and military service to their country in times of peace and war. PMC’s last casualty of the Vietnam War was the school itself. As the war dragged on and became less and less popular, so did all things military in America. In 1972, America’s second-oldest military college disbanded its Corps of Cadets.