Eden Hall Campus at Chatham University!
This blog will follow the highlights and adventures of farm life with the students at Chatham University.
Chatham University received the 388-acre Eden Hall in Richland Township, Pennsylvania from Eden Hall Foundation on May 1, 2008. The gift established the largest university campus in Allegheny County and will enable Chatham to expand its academic and environmental programs for the University’s nearly 2,200 students and for the North Hills community at large. The Eden Hall Campus will also be the new home of Chatham’s new School of Sustainability and the Environment. Programs at Eden Hall Campus include an environmental learning lab, initiatives in sustainability and environmental studies, food studies, landscape architecture, and women’s studies.
Past History
Originally a farm and retreat for the working women of Pittsburgh, Eden Hall was the vision of Sebastian Mueller (1860-1938) who immigrated to Pittsburgh from his native Germany in 1884 to work for his cousin Henry J. Heinz in his fledgling food processing operation. Mr. Mueller spent more than five decades working for what was then called “The House of Heinz”. He headed the company’s manufacturing operations, served on its board of directors and ran the organization during Mr. Heinz’ absence. Sebastian Mueller won the respect and gratitude of not only the company’s founder but also its legion of working women.
Mr. Mueller was generous in providing Heinz’ female employees with medical care and financial assistance – long before the existence of corporate health care plans or government programs. His estate became the retreat for generations of Pittsburgh’s working women and served as a memorial to the Mueller’s two daughters, Elsa and Alma, both of whom died in childhood. Having no heirs, Mr. Mueller willed Eden Hall to serve as a vacation and respite destination for the working and retired women of the H.J. Heinz Company, as well as for the working women of western Pennsylvania.
Eden Hall Farm Blog 