385 - Philomath College - Philomath, OR - Historic United Methodist Sites on Waymarking.com

HISTORIC PHILOMATH COLLEGE BUILDING

Philomath college was chartered November 1865, as the United Brethren School for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California. The name combines two Greek words meaning love of learning. The building’s center structure was completed in September 1867, of bricks made from clay extruded near the building. the center structure is 40 X 60 feet in 2-feet-thick walls. The west wing was completed in 1905; the east wing in 1907. The coeducational college offered a classical curriculum which reflected pioneer dedication to education. After 62 years and more than 6,000 students, Philomath College closed in June 1929. Named for the college, the City of Philomath grew up about the campus. Philomath College building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior December 1972.

The building is the current home of the Benton County Historical Society & Museum. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1972. The NRHP Nomination Form highlights its significance and reads:

Philomath College is one of several distinctive examples of early collegiate building in Oregon. Tile project was undertaken in 1865 by the United Brethren in Christ as part of a program of expansion in the West. Typical of the state's early sectarian enterprises, the school was the nucleus around which the town of Philomath grew. The plan called for purchasing a section of land, selecting a site for the building, and selling the remainder in small lots for a new townsite. In 1866 the town was incorporated and the college building was well on the way to completion.

Upon the arrival of the United Brethren missionary train in Oregon in 1853, it was decided to divide Oregon into two conference districts, each comprising an area of 3000 square miles. The south, or Willamette District, was in charge of the Reverend T. J. Connor. It was the ambition of either district not only to provide necessary church buildings for the growing congregations, but also to build suitable schools for the higher religious and literary training of the young people who were remote from educational centers.

In February, 1865, a large group of settlers in the Willamette District met to consider the feasibility of building a school. The meeting resulted in pledges of $3,000 for a building, and $12 ? 000 for land and endowment, A half section of land was purchased for $2,510, eight acres of which were set aside for the college. The remaining 312 acres were divided into lots for sale to settlers. The proposal, along with the assets and pledges, was presented to the United Brethren Church.

Thus aided by local settlers, the United Brethren of the Willamette District founded Philomath College as the sectarian school for Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and California. The College was opened for use in October, 1867. It was chartered as a Christian college for the liberal education of both sexes, and for the training of ministers. The charter also provided, in accord with sectarian ethic, that no intoxicating liquors were permitted to be sold within a mile of the school. Philomath College prospered and became popular enough that there was at one time a move to make it a state institution, but the Church could not agree to surrender its interest due to binding clauses in the school charter.

Philomath College served well in equipping young men for ministerial careers. Among the school's earlier students was the Reverend Louis Albert Banks, a native Oregonian and author, mostly of religious writings, who became pastor of several of the nation's leading Methodist Episcopal churches. His best known title, published in 1897, is An Oregon Boyhood. No less than 100 ministers and as many prominent lawyers and physicians and business men women were trained in the liberal arts at the college. However, with the (remaining verbiage missing)