| H'haid's corner: A town of many colleges |
|
By: MIKE WEST
|
Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008 7:54 am
|
 Email  Print
|
Everyone thinks of Murfreesboro as a “college town” thanks to MTSU, but few remember the days when two institutions of higher education were located on historic East Main Street.
Tennessee College for Women predated MTSU, opening in 1907 on what now is the site of Central Middle School.
Tennessee College, a Baptist supported institution, was advertised as the only four-year college for women in Tennessee. It was located on the former grounds of Union University, another Baptist-affiliated college that opened its doors in 1848.
Dr. Joseph H. Eaton was Union’s first president. The Civil War closed down the college from 1861 to 1868 and a cholera epidemic finished it off in 1873. It was ultimately relocated to Jackson.
The land once occupied by Union remained in the hands of the college’s trustees during the decades after the Civil War. The Baptists of Tennessee authorized the establishment of Tennessee College in 1905 and it opened on Sept. 11, 1907 with George J. Burnett as president and his brother, Henry Burnett, as business manager. It began with a faculty of 17 and 15 courses. The initial enrollment was 199 students.
Tennessee College for Women continued to grow until the Great Depression and in the early 1940s competition from other colleges like the coed State Teachers College cut into the enrollment. The college closed on July 1, 1946.
And of course, there’s the “Normal School.”
Middle Tennessee Normal School was created by the General Education law of 1909, chiefly due to the efforts of A.L. Todd. It opened Sept. 11, 1911 with R.L. Jones the first president and a faculty that numbered 14.
The institution was renamed Middle Tennessee State Teachers College in 1925. It was later shorted by dropping the Middle Tennessee. In 1941, the “teachers” was dropped from the name.
And so forth ....
But Soule College probably has the right to be called the first true college in Rutherford County.
Founded by members of the Methodist Church in 1851, it opened in November 1851 on Lebanon Street (now called North Maple.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Login and voice your opinion!
|
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!