Huntingdon College

History

Huntingdon College was chartered on February 2, 1854, as "Tuskegee Female College" by the Alabama State Legislature and Governor John A. Winston. The first president was Andrew Adgate Lipscomb. Dr. Lipscomb laid the foundation of the college as a teaching college rather than a research institution.

In 1872 the name was changed to "Alabama Conference Female College" as the college came under the auspices of the United Methodist Church. As the college and the South struggled to rebuild following the Civil War, it became clear to college leaders that growth and stability were dependent upon relocation to a more populous city—and they chose the state's capital. A 58-acre (235,000 m²) parcel of land on what was then the outskirts of town and is now the beautiful Old Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery was selected in 1908. The design for the landscape of the campus was provided by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., who had also planned the Biltmore Estate. The college, renamed once again to "Woman's College of Alabama," moved all of its furniture, lab chemicals, and records into Hamner Hall in Montgomery August 24, 1909, but the building burned to the ground that night, destroying the records of the college's first 50 years and all of its belongings. As the students and President William Martin moved to Sullins College in Virginia for that school year, construction continued on the college's first building, John Jefferson Flowers Memorial Hall. Completed in 1910 and designed by Harvard architect H. Langford Warren, Flowers Hall was designed to emulate the collegiate Gothic architecture of Oxford and Cambridge, England, and of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and set the tone for the pervasive architectural style of campus buildings henceforth.

The college admitted its first male students in the aftermath of World War I, graduating the first male student in 1934. Realizing that the name Woman's College of Alabama no longer fit its student body, the college's final name change came in 1935 when Huntingdon College was adopted in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a notable supporter of John Wesley and of Methodism.

Huntingdon today offers more than 20 undergraduate programs of study and 15 NCAA-III intercollegiate athletic teams that participate in the USA South Athletic Conference. Between 2002 and 2012, enrollment jumped by 53% in the traditional day program and 88% overall (594 to 1118), prompting the Chronicle of Higher Education to list Huntingdon among its 2014 list of "Fastest Growing Colleges in America."

Campus

Huntingdon's campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Huntingdon College Campus Historic District. The district contains thirteen contributing buildings, built in the Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival styles, and one site. The district was placed on the NRHP on February 24, 2000.

Athletics

Huntingdon College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Hawks are a member of the USA South Athletic Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. Huntingdon is the only four-year college in the state of Alabama to offer collegiate wrestling. Beginning in the fall of 2017, the Hawks will resurrect their cross country program with the help of new head coach Daniel August. August is a graduate of Carthage College and Wisconsin Lutheran College.

Huntingdon alumni

Notable Huntington alumni include:

Cookbook Author of 8 books, Ray Overton III (1977)