Childers Classical Institute
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Abilene Christian University began as an educational institution on this block known as the West End residential area. In 1906, Allen Booker Barret, a Tennessee educator and preacher, and five trustees purchased land and a house from Col. John W. Childers. That fall, president Barret, his brother W.S., and Charles H. Roberson opened Childers Classical Institute. The first class comprised 25 students, with 50 enrolling during the school year. In 1920, the institute’s name changed to Abilene Christian College and in 1929, moved to its current site. The college grew slowly at first, but today, thousands of students are enrolled at Abilene Christian University, more than 100 years after its founding.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Abilene Christian University traces its start to this West End block, where in 1906 Tennessee educator-preacher Allen Booker Barret and five trustees bought a house and land from Col. John W. Childers. That fall they opened Childers Classical Institute with 25 students in the first class and 50 by year's end. Renamed Abilene Christian College in 1920 and moved to its present campus in 1929, the modest school grew into a university now enrolling thousands more than a century on.
Why it matters
It marks the humble origin of a major church-affiliated university and reflects the wave of faith-based colleges that spread higher education across the early-20th-century West.
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Related people
- · Allen Booker Barret
- · John W. Childers
- · Charles H. Roberson
Themes & tags
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