From 2001-2003 I worked at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. As someone who enjoys learning the history of each college where I work, I discovered Shenandoah had spent its first 46 years in Dayton, VA, a town 75 miles south. Then, when was teaching graduate courses on higher education in Winston-Salem in the mid-2000s, I was shocked to learn that their entire campus had moved there in the mid-1950s.
In 2010, when I started work at Baylor University, we took the first year students attending Line Camp, to Independence, TX in the summer before their first semester. Independence, TX is 115 miles southeast of Waco, TX – only 25 miles from the Texas A&M campus. Lastly, when I taught a graduate course at Texas Christian University in 2022, I learned that they believed students from Baylor had burned down their college (which had been located in Waco) in 1910, which resulted in their college’s move to Fort Worth.
If you are aware of a college that exists today but was located in another town for at least 10 years of its early existence, please let me know.
1. Baylor University 1845 -1887 (43 years) in Independence, TX before moving to Waco, TX (115 miles away).
2. Shenandoah University 1875 – 1959 (85 years) in Dayton, VA before moving to Winchester, VA (75 miles away)
3. Texas Christian University – 1895 – 1910 (16 years) in Waco, TX before moving to Fort Worth, TX (87 miles away)
4. Wake Forest University 1838 – 1955 (118 years!) in Wake Forest, NC before moving to Winston-Salem, NC (103 miles away)
5. Arcadia University 1853 – 1924 (72 years) in Beaver, PA before moving to Jenkintown, PA (340 miles away). Arcadia was called Beaver College from 1853 to 2000.
6. Randolph-Macon College was located in Boydton, VA from 1830-1867 (39 years) before moving to Ashland, VA (115 miles away) from 1868-today.
Deep Thoughts on Higher Ed 