Judson College was a private

women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...

Marion, Alabama Marion is a city in, and the county seat of, Perry County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 3,686, up 4.8% over 2000. First known as Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed for a hero of the American Revolu ...

. It was founded in 1838 and suspended its academic operations on July 31, 2021.

History

It was founded by members of Siloam Baptist Church in 1838, making it the fifth-oldest women's college in the country. Judson was named after Ann Hasseltine Judson, the first female foreign

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

from the United States to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(now

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

). Businesswoman Julia Tarrant Barron and General Edwin Davis King, with the support of other members of Siloam Baptist Church, enlisted the help of Dr.

Milo Parker Jewett Milo Parker Jewett (27 April 1808 – 9 June 1882) was the first Vassar College#Presidents of Vassar College, president of Vassar College and first president of Judson College (Alabama), Judson College, holding the office from 1861 to 1864, and ...

, a recent graduate of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

and

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambridge. ...

. Jewett had come to Alabama with the goal of establishing a school for young women that would provide them with the same quality of education that young men received at Harvard and Yale. Jewett became the first president of Judson and later of

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

. Judson has been affiliated with the

Alabama Baptist Convention The Alabama Baptist Convention (ABC or ABSC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the state of Alabama formed in 1823. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The Alabama Baptist State ...

throughout its history and received funding from the convention. The principal building of the campus is Jewett Hall, the third of this name. The first Jewett Hall, built in 1840, was a four-story

Greek revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

building named after Milo P. Jewett. It was destroyed by fire in 1888. The rebuilding of Jewett Hall was begun that same year. In 1947 the dome was hit by a lightning strike and fire consumed the building. Rebuilding efforts began almost immediately, and funds were raised by the sale of bricks from the rubble. A third fire occurred in the attic of this building as mattresses were lit on fire, but the fire was put out without much damage to the building. Other notable buildings on campus include A. Howard Bean Hall, a former Carnegie library which now houses the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame as well as 2 classrooms, the Alumnae Auditorium, and the Women's Missionary Union residence hall. The college was granted an exception to

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

in 2015 which allows it to legally discriminate against LGBT students for religious reasons. Enrollment at Judson in 2019 was 268 and the college offered

bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

and pre-professional programs. In 2020 the college experienced severe financial challenges due to declining enrollment and

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. In December, the college's president issued an urgent plea for $500,000 in donations to prevent the college from closing immediately. Although it had raised $1.3 million, enrollment dropped from 145 in the fall of 2020 to 80 for the fall of 2021. In May of 2021, the college's board of trustees voted to close the college and begin

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy proceedings. The college closed its residence halls after the spring semester ended and suspended academic operations after the summer term ending July 31, 2021. In 2022 the school's archives were transferred to Samford University, a sister school, founded in Marion which relocated to Birmingham in 1887.

Student life

Judson College participated in joint social and civic events with

Marion Military Institute Marion Military Institute, the Military College of Alabama, (MMI, sometimes Marion Institute, Marion Military, or simply Marion) is a public military junior college in Marion, Alabama. Founded in 1842, it is the official state military college o ...

, also located in Marion. Many of these events and traditions date as far back as the Civil War and are connected culturally to that era. Judson College was ranked among the "Absolute Worst Campuses for

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

Youth" in the US by

Campus Pride Campus Pride is an American national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded by M. Chad Wilson, Sarah E. Holmes and Shane L. Windmeyer in 2001 which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and ally student leaders and/or campus orga ...

Notable alumnae

* Titilayo Adedokun (1973-), singer (soprano) and beauty queen *

Gwen Bristow Gwen Bristow (September 16, 1903 – August 17, 1980) was an American writer and journalist. Early life Bristow was born in Marion, South Carolina in 1903 to Baptist minister Louis Judson Bristow and Caroline Cornelia Winkler. Bristow became in ...

(1903-1980), author * Caroline Dormon (1888–1971), botanist and authorCaroline C. Dormon, ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', Vol. 1 (1988), p. 251 *

Margaret Lea Houston Margaret Lea Houston (April 11, 1819 – December 3, 1867) was First Lady of the Republic of Texas during her husband Sam Houston's second term as President of the Republic of Texas. They met following the first of his two non-consecutive term ...

(1819–1867), First Lady of Texas * Billie Young (1947-2021), actress, activist, poet and educator. * Evelyn Daniel Anderson (August 2, 1926 – October 7, 1998), American educator and advocate for the physically disabled. * Mary Ward Brown (June 18, 1917 – May 14, 2013), American short story writer and memoirist. *

Janie Shores Janie Ledlow Shores (April 30, 1932 – August 9, 2017) was a judge on the Supreme Court of Alabama who was the first woman to ever serve on that court. Shores also was considered by President Bill Clinton in 1993 as a possible nominee to the Un ...

(April 30, 1932 – August 9, 2017)

Supreme Court of Alabama The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is hous ...

judge and first woman to ever serve on that court.

Namesake colleges

Judson University Judson University is a private Baptist university in Elgin, Illinois. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Judson was formed out of the liberal arts component of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. When the seminary moved f ...

(Illinois) is the namesake of Ann Judson's husband, Adoniram Judson.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Perry County, Alabama Education in Perry County, Alabama Educational institutions established in 1838 History of women in Alabama Liberal arts colleges in Alabama Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Universities and colleges affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention USCAA member institutions Former women's universities and colleges in the United States Historic districts in Perry County, Alabama Council for Christian Colleges and Universities 1838 establishments in Alabama Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Perry County, Alabama Defunct private universities and colleges in Alabama Marion, Alabama Educational institutions disestablished in 2021 2021 disestablishments in Alabama Women in Alabama