Westminster House

Biography / Administrative History

The collection contains reference materials used by John S. Hadsell during the writing of A Sacred Space: The Story of the Westminster House, Berkeley . He was unable to find a publisher. The book was self-published in 2000 with the financial support of various contributors.

Westminster House is the Presbyterian Student Center at University of California, Berkeley. The Presbyterian Synod of California established a campus ministry in 1911. The next year they purchased a 12-room house at 2700 Bancroft Way. Initially, the house served as the home for the campus minister. In 1915, the facility opened to student housing. Originally called the Presbyterian House, it was renamed Westminster, honoring the Westminster Confession of Faith produced by the Westminster Assembly in England in the 17th century. From the beginning, ministers and students were active in the campus and community. The most turbulent period took place during the sixties and seventies. Students were active in many of the causes for social justice and briefly founded a commune.

Hadsell grew up in Berkeley and attended the University of California. Following his graduation in 1943, he served as an officer on the USS Washington. After the war, he worked for the Boy Scouts of America. He received a bachelor's of divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary and a doctorate in education from Columbia University. Hadsell served as Presbyterian campus minister at San Francisco State from 1955-59 and at UC-Berkeley from 1959-70. He taught at the San Francisco Theological Seminary from 1970 to 1987.

Hadsell has writen several other books. With Richard Coote,he wrote San Francisco Theological Seminary : the shaping of a western school of the church, 1871-1998 and wrote and edited several histories of local Presbyterian churches.

From the guide to the John S. Hadsell Westminster House Collection, 1876-2000, (The Graduate Theological Union. Library.)