On May 6 the Judson College Board of Trustees voted to close the venerable women's school; academic operations will end on July 31. The decision followed months of fund raising efforts that were ultimately unsuccessful and declining enrollment for almost two decades. Only 12 students had committed to attending in fall 2021. The school will also file for bankruptcy. Huntingdon College in Montgomery, which was originally a women's school, has offered to accept Judson transfers.
The ending is a sad one for the Baptist school founded in Marion in 1838 to educate female students. At the time of this announcement, Judson was the only such institution in the state and the fifth oldest women's college in the U.S. The first session opened on January 7, 1839, with nine students; three were male. The number rose to 47 by May. The state legislature granted an incorporation charter on January 9, 1841, and commencement for the first graduating class was held that July. The school was named after Ann Judson, a Baptist missionary.
Judson had faced financial crises before but always rebounded. The Alabama Baptist Convention considered merging Judson and Howard College during the Great Depression. The school also faced problems during World War II as many women left to join the military or take jobs left open by men who had enlisted.
One of many questions arising from the closure is what will happen to the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame, located in A. Howard Bean Hall on the campus. The Hall of Fame began inducting significant women in the state's history in 1970. Bean Hall is a former Carnegie library building.
You can find more photographs, postcards, catalogs and other materials related to Judson at Alabama Mosaic. The Judson College Legacy Project from 2014 is here.
Further Reading
Hamilton, Francis Dew and Elizabeth Crabtree Wells. Daughters of the Dream: Judson College, 1838-1988. Marion, Ala.: Judson College, 1989
Manly, Louise. History of Judson College. Atlanta: Foote & Davis, 1913
[This book is online via Hathi Trust]
Judson College's Jewett Hall, the third building on campus with this name. The first two burned to the ground.
Source: Judson College
A photograph of the second Jewett Hall taken in 1889, the year it opened.
Source: Manly's History of Judson College [1913], as noted above
A 1910 postcard of the second Jewett Hall on the Judson campus, built in 1889 and burned in 1947.
Source: Ward Hall Postcard Collection, Troy University Library
In 1906 Judson College received $12,500 from the Carnegie Foundation to build this library on campus. This postcard dates from 1920 or earlier. The library eventually moved to another building and this one became Bean Hall housing the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame beginning around 1970.
This postcard announces the school's Diamond Jubilee to be celebrated in May 1913. The card was mailed in February to a young lady in Maine.
Source: Wade Hall Postcard Collection, Troy University Library
Judson College seal
Source: Wikipedia
