History

After the reorganization of higher education by race and sex in 1905, the state offered the now vacant Florida Agricultural College campus for the use of any religious body promising to locate a four-year college there. The Florida Baptist Convention accepted the offer and created Columbia College.  An advertisement for the school noted that “while we aim at Mental Culture, the Practical is not overlooked and Moral Training is emphasized.”  Columbia College originally had eight schools:  academic grades, liberal arts, fine arts, pedagogy, the Bible, business, domestic science and practical arts. 

 

By the time of the 1914 yearbook, some schools had been divided, absorbed or dropped.  The largest schools were instrumental music, vocal music, expression, art, and commerce.  The academy had been dropped.  But out of a total school enrollment of around 200, there were only 34 students in the degree-seeking portion of the college.

 

But the strength of the music and expression schools can be seen in the fact that graduation was a week-long celebration in which orchestral music, choral music, drama, debate, and forensics were each given a night to present a program for the attending guests.

 

Columbia College had chapters of the Y.M.C.A., the Ministerial Band, and the Women’s Auxiliary.  There were four literary societies—two for males and two for females—to provide opportunities for forensics and expression.

 

According to the Florida Baptist Historical Society website, Columbia College suffered some financial difficulty because of a bank failure.  The onset of World War I led to a loss of male students.   A 1917 note indicated that the college needed a more secure financial basis.  In 1918 Columbia College surrendered its campus to the U.S. Army to be used as a recuperation hospital.  The college then closed for the duration of World War I and never reopened.  At that time its indebtedness was listed as $3,000.