CONWAY, Ark. (March 18, 2016) –
Hendrix College will celebrate the 125th anniversary of its move from Altus to
Conway, Arkansas, on Friday, April 15, at 3 p.m., in Simon Park in downtown
Conway.
The program will feature Hendrix
President Bill Tsutsui, Altus Mayor Veronica Post, Conway Mayor Tab Townsell, Conway
Corp. CEO Richie Arnold, Conway Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Brad Lacy, and Bishop
Gary E. Mueller, episcopal leader of the Arkansas Conference of the United
Methodist Church. The Hendrix Wind Ensemble will also perform.
Following a brief program, guests are invited to walk from
Simon Park to campus, where Hendrix students will perform an
anniversary-inspired tableau and offer historic campus tours.
For more information, contact Rob O’Connor, Associate Vice
President for Marketing Communications, at 501-450-1462.
The Olin C. Bailey Library at Hendrix is collecting
historical Hendrix photos (e.g. alumni wedding photos in Greene Chapel) for the
College archives. If you have any Hendrix-related photos you would like to
share or donate, contact Christina Thompson Shutt, College Archivist and Public Services Librarian, at
501-450-4558 or thompsonc@hendrix.edu.
Historical Background
Hendrix was founded in 1876 as
Central Institute by Rev. Isham Burrow in Altus (Franklin County). Five years
later, the name was changed to Central Collegiate Institute.
In 1884, the institution joined
the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church (then called the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South).
In 1889, it was renamed Hendrix
College in honor of Bishop Eugene Russell Hendrix, presiding bishop of the
Arkansas Conference. A year later, Conway was one of seven Arkansas communities
competing for Hendrix.
Early Conway civic leaders as
Capt. W. W. Martin and the Rev. E. A. Tabor were instrumental in Conway’s bid
to get Hendrix. Rev. Tabor worked to rid the city of its five saloons and Capt.
Martin worked to raise $72,000, which included $11,000 he donated himself.
In the spring of 1890, Capt.
Martin, the Rev. Tabor, and several other civic leaders arrived in Conway,
where the business district was decorated with flags and banners, to tell an
excited crowd of shouting citizens that Conway had won the College.
Hendrix College, its five
faculty members, and 158 students moved to Conway in the summer of 1890 and the
first academic year commenced that fall. The college property included school
records and supplies, a library of some 500 books, and a small amount of
scientific apparatus, maps, charts and a globe.
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private
liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with
the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives:
40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides,
lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For
more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.