During the early and middle part of the 19th century, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania had sought to collaborate with seminaries in Ohio and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the education of future church leaders. However, several factors combined to discourage these efforts. Sending students to Ohio and Gettysburg was expensive. Leaders of the Ministerium had not always been pleased with the quality of instruction at Gettysburg. They sought to train future pastors in English and German because thousands of German immigrants had greatly expanded the population in the Philadelphia region. Philosophical differences had emerged. Gettysburg educators sought a model they saw as appropriate to the pioneer frontier. They did not share the affinity that Philadelphia leaders had for the Confessional documents originating in Germany hundreds of years before. Three founding faculty members, William Julius Mann, Charles Porterfield Krauth and Charles Schaeffer, opened the fledgling seminary in Philadelphia on Oct. 4, 1864 on the site of what today is the Gallery at Market East at 9th and Market in Center City Philadelphia. Listen and watch as past and present faculty members Karl Krueger, Timothy Wengert, and Erik Heen trace the school’s early history from historical, confessional, and biblical perspectives. And learn more about the story of a graduate from the late 1860s, as told by a 2001 seminary graduate.