Philadelphia University Unveils Arlen Specter Center for Public Service

Philadelphia University formally dedicated the Arlen Specter Center for Public Service and its newly restored home, Roxboro House, at a Sept. 11 ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by faculty, staff, students, trustees, Specter family members, East Falls neighbors and other guests.

“The Arlen Specter Center for Public Service is dedicated in Senator Specter’s memory, and it is a monument to his work ethic and personal values that we also believe in,” President Stephen Spinelli Jr. told some 250 guests gathered in front of Roxboro House.

Eileen Martinson, chair of the board of trustees, raised a toast to the late Sen. Specter, “whose tireless energy and vision forged a timeless friendship with Philadelphia University that we are grateful for every day,” and to his wife Joan and son Shanin, “who have continued that cherished friendship with us.”

The building, which dates from around 1800 and was restored to historic standards, is also being used for classes and, starting this fall, the Roxboro House Roundtables, a new weekly small seminar series for students, faculty and guests that addresses a wide range of historic and contemporary issues throughout the academic year.

In 2010, Sen. Arlen Specter donated to PhilaU his extensive archives including some 3,000 boxes of historic documents and papers, photos, videos and other memorabilia, the most important of which are being digitized under a partnership with the University of Pittsburgh and will be accessible to the public in about four years. Sen. Specter passed away in 2012.

The Specter Center’s first exhibition, “Single Bullet: Arlen Specter & The Warren Commission Investigation of the JFK Assassination,” which was on display in the Paul J. Gutman Library from October 2013 to July 2014, featured an interdisciplinary student analysis of the events surrounding the assassination.