History

Until the Civil War the Presbyterian Church of Kentucky supported Centre College at Danville.  The war led to a split in the church.  Southern factions of the church opened a rival institution called Central University, based at Richmond.  Citizens of Richmond and Madison County supplied almost half of the $220,000 endowment. 

 

What came to be called Central University of Kentucky was a College of Philosophy, Letters, and Science; a College of Law; and the Richmond Preparatory School, all at Richmond; the  Hospital College of Medicine and the Louisville College of Dentistry, both at Louisville; the S.P. Lees Collegiate Institute at Jackson, and the Hardin Collegiate Institute at Elizabethtown. 

 

The College of Philosophy, Letters and Science had 22 Seniors in 1901, so the enrollment of the main college would have been something well over one hundred.  The 1892 bulletin lists an enrollment of 217, most from Kentucky. The student body was predominantly male, though each class had at least one female who figured prominently in publications.

 

There were two literary societies and four social fraternities as well as a YMCA chapter on the Richmond campus.  The college sponsored contests in oratory and debate, and students published a weekly newspaper in addition to the yearbook.  School dances were sponsored by the fraternities and by the Cotillion Club, whose annual February Ball was the major social event.  After 1892 there was a military presence on campus, giving students an opportunity to be a part of the Central College Battalion.

 

In 1901 financial considerations resulted in the merger of the two Presbyterian institutions.  Central University joined Centre College on the Danville campus.