A History Enriched by the Past

Centre College opened its doors in the fall of 1820, with a faculty of two and a student body of five. Classes reflected the classical curriculum of the day which included Latin, Greek, rhetoric, and logic. They were held in Old Centre, a building which has been used continuously since Centre's beginning and which today houses the College's administrative offices as well as a Heritage Room and a classroom.

Old Centre had been built the previous year at a cost of $8,000. It was designed to hold up to 400 students in the College and also a grammar school.

Despite early financial hardships, disputes within and outside of the Presbyterian Church, and six wars (including the occupation of Old Centre by both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War), Centre has remained open and committed to its educational mission since its founding.

The roots of the College, officially chartered by the Kentucky Legislature on January 21, 1819, lie deep in the history of the region. Presbyterians, eager for an educated clergy and educated people to teach their children, were laying the groundwork for the establishment of a college in what was then the Kentucky County of Virginia. At the same time, the Revolutionary War was being fought and the region west of the Allegheny Mountains was being settled out of wilderness.

In 1780, the Virginia Assembly set aside 8,000 acres of land for this "seminary of learning." Three years later, a board of trustees met at Tom Crow's Station to organize the school. Instruction began at the Transylvania Seminary near Danville in 1785.

But the seminary fell on hard financial times. Unable to raise proper funding in the small community of Danville, the trustees moved the school to the larger settlement of Lexington in 1788. By 1794, the founding group of Presbyterians, alarmed by what it viewed as secular philosophies invading public institutions, moved to establish a more Christian school near Pisgah, Kentucky. The Kentucky Academy opened in 1795, funded by donations from the faithful. George Washington and John Adams gave $100 each to the new school, and Aaron Burr donated $50.

By 1819, the Presbyterians began to realize that they had again lost control of their institution and its board of trustees. Once more they petitioned the Kentucky Legislature for a charter, and Centre College was established. The legislature placed some of its most important citizens in charge of Centre as its first board of trustees. Isaac Shelby, the state's first governor, was its chair. Dr. Ephraim McDowell, a Danville resident who 10 years earlier had made medical history by performing the first successful abdominal operation, was also on the board.

The struggle between the Presbyterians and others, who were eager for a more public institution of higher education, continued beyond Centre's opening two years later. While the Kentucky Legislature gave complete control of the College's board of trustees to the Presbyterians in 1824, it added an amendment stating that "the College shall at all times be conducted on liberal, free and enlightened principles, and no student shall be excluded in consequence of his religious opinions, or those of his parents, guardians or relatives."

While the first 10 years of Centre's history was a period of preparation and planning, its second phase, from 1830 to 1857, was an era of consolidation and growth. Dr. John C. Young, Centre's president during the later period, found, according to Dr. Ormond Beatty (who served as Centre's president during the latter half of the 19th century), "the College without reputation, without endowment, without students....But, he was young, hopeful and earnest." Dr. Young's qualities and the support of loyal alumni and friends of the College helped Centre advance under his presidency.

"Before his death, Dr. Young saw a permanent fund of $100,000 provided for the support of the school," Beatty noted. This occurred along with additions to the curriculum, enlargement of the faculty, and a five-fold increase in the student body. Under Dr. Young's tenure, Centre advanced to a position among the highest-ranking colleges in America.

Founded primarily as an institution devoted to training young men for the ministry, Centre has changed throughout its history to keep pace with the educational demands of a growing region and nation. The Kentucky School for the Deaf, also in Danville, was founded in 1824 as the first state-supported institution for the deaf, and in its early years was controlled by Centre's board of trustees. From the 1890's until 1912, a law school was operated at Centre with J. Procter Knott, a former Kentucky governor, as its dean. In 1901, the Central University at Richmond was consolidated with Centre. Danville's Kentucky College for Women merged with Centre in 1926, becoming the College's women's department. The department maintained a separate campus until the early 1960's when a unified campus organization was formed.

As the 20th century continued to unfold, many of the educational resources of Kentucky and the nation were committed to the establishment and expansion of state-supported land grant universities. These institutions were often vocationally oriented. But Centre remained steadfast in its mission of providing superior education in the liberal arts tradition. In this period Centre's image as a tiny school capable of startlingly large achievements was enhanced by its 1921 football victory over number-one-ranked Harvard (often referred to as the greatest sports upset in the first half of the 20th Century). Also during this period, Centre continued to educate persons who went on to achieve distinction in a variety of fields, many of whom later served as leaders in helping the College further advance its tradition of alumni loyalty and support.

During the 1960's, a period of explosive growth in American higher education, Centre's financial resources doubled. Eleven new buildings were added to the campus, the enrollment increased from 450 to around 800, and the faculty was enlarged.

Throughout its long history, Centre has been supported and enhanced by its alumni, who have taken positions of prominence and usefulness in a variety of fields. Centre alumni have figured prominently in U.S. history. They include two U.S. vice presidents, one Chief Justice of the United States, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 13 U.S. Senators, 43 U.S. Representatives, 10 moderators of the General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church, and 11 governors. Other Centre alumni have been and are leaders in a variety of other fields including teaching, business, medicine, law and journalism.