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Bethel College (Kansas)
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Bethel College (Kansas)
Bethel College is a private Christian college in North Newton, Kansas, United States. It is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA.
Bethel College, founded in 1887, is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel College became the second institution of higher learning associated with the General Conference Mennonite Church (now Mennonite Church USA), replacing Wadsworth Institute in Ohio, which had closed in 1878.
During the 1880s, Kansas cities and towns competed with one another to create and construct institutions and buildings, including colleges. On May 11, 1887, representatives of Newton and the Kansas Conference of Mennonites signed a charter for Bethel College to be built on a plot of about 120 acres (0.49 km2) north of the town of Newton. Around 2,500 people gathered on the property on October 12, 1888, to lay the cornerstone of the main building, which serves as the current Administration Building and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[citation needed]
The building project took around five years to complete. Fundraising was slow, but on September 20, 1893, a service of dedication opened the building, and classes began.[citation needed]
Cornelius H. Wedel, a young teacher from Halstead, Kan., was the college's first president. There were 98 students – 77 men and 21 women ages 13 to mid-30s – living on the west end of the main floor and the ground floor of the Ad Building, while Wedel and his family lived on the east end of the main floor. The classrooms, chapel and library of 600 volumes were located on the second floor.
In those days, students were up by 5 a.m. and in bed by 10 p.m. Each worked two hours a day at a campus job. Student conduct was strictly monitored. Men and women were not allowed to be in the library on the same evening, so they alternated evenings.
Five men, including President Wedel, made up the first faculty. They taught classes in Bible, church history, German, English, mathematics, science and music. Bethel was a bilingual college until early 1918, when the United States entered World War I. German was removed from the curriculum, but later reinstated and remained as a major until 2006, when it switched to a minor.
The Ad Building was the main campus structure until 1925, when Science Hall was completed. The cornerstone for Memorial Hall was laid in 1938 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the laying of the Ad Building cornerstone. "Mem Hall" was completed in 1942. Various other buildings have come and gone since the Ad Building went up, but of those still remaining, the next to be built after Mem Hall was the current Franz Art Center, in 1947 – originally the general shop, home of the industrial arts department and the shop for the Bethel College farm, and now the home of the Department of Visual Arts and Design. The library finally moved into its own building in 1952 – today this is the Mennonite Library and Archives. Bethel College Mennonite Church, founded in 1897, met in the Ad Building chapel for almost 60 years, until its current building south of the main campus was completed in 1956.
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Bethel College (Kansas)
Bethel College is a private Christian college in North Newton, Kansas, United States. It is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA.
Bethel College, founded in 1887, is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel College became the second institution of higher learning associated with the General Conference Mennonite Church (now Mennonite Church USA), replacing Wadsworth Institute in Ohio, which had closed in 1878.
During the 1880s, Kansas cities and towns competed with one another to create and construct institutions and buildings, including colleges. On May 11, 1887, representatives of Newton and the Kansas Conference of Mennonites signed a charter for Bethel College to be built on a plot of about 120 acres (0.49 km2) north of the town of Newton. Around 2,500 people gathered on the property on October 12, 1888, to lay the cornerstone of the main building, which serves as the current Administration Building and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[citation needed]
The building project took around five years to complete. Fundraising was slow, but on September 20, 1893, a service of dedication opened the building, and classes began.[citation needed]
Cornelius H. Wedel, a young teacher from Halstead, Kan., was the college's first president. There were 98 students – 77 men and 21 women ages 13 to mid-30s – living on the west end of the main floor and the ground floor of the Ad Building, while Wedel and his family lived on the east end of the main floor. The classrooms, chapel and library of 600 volumes were located on the second floor.
In those days, students were up by 5 a.m. and in bed by 10 p.m. Each worked two hours a day at a campus job. Student conduct was strictly monitored. Men and women were not allowed to be in the library on the same evening, so they alternated evenings.
Five men, including President Wedel, made up the first faculty. They taught classes in Bible, church history, German, English, mathematics, science and music. Bethel was a bilingual college until early 1918, when the United States entered World War I. German was removed from the curriculum, but later reinstated and remained as a major until 2006, when it switched to a minor.
The Ad Building was the main campus structure until 1925, when Science Hall was completed. The cornerstone for Memorial Hall was laid in 1938 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the laying of the Ad Building cornerstone. "Mem Hall" was completed in 1942. Various other buildings have come and gone since the Ad Building went up, but of those still remaining, the next to be built after Mem Hall was the current Franz Art Center, in 1947 – originally the general shop, home of the industrial arts department and the shop for the Bethel College farm, and now the home of the Department of Visual Arts and Design. The library finally moved into its own building in 1952 – today this is the Mennonite Library and Archives. Bethel College Mennonite Church, founded in 1897, met in the Ad Building chapel for almost 60 years, until its current building south of the main campus was completed in 1956.
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