Bridgewater College history

Bridgewater College was formed and chartered to grant degrees in 1880.

John S. Flory had been associated with Bridgewater College since September 1888 when he first entered it as a student.

The oldest building on the current campus, Memorial Hall, opened in September 1890.

Bridgewater conferred its first Bachelor of Arts degree on June 1, 1891.

In 1895, the Chairman of the Faculty, Walter B. Yount, a graduate of what would become Juniata College and the University of Virginia was named the college's first President.

After his retirement in 1910, John S. Flory (an early Bridgewater graduate who also received degrees from other institution and had served on the faculty and as vice-president) succeeded him as the college's president.

When President Flory announced in 1918 that he would retire from the presidency of the College the following year, he worked with a committee to seek out his eventual successor, Paul H. Bowman, a Bridgewater College professor of Biblical literature and theology.

Students working for the B.A. degree—which had consisted of only about 15 percent when he took office—had reached 55 percent when he stepped down in 1919.

The observance of Founder’s Day began in 1920 and is an annual celebration of BC’s heritage, usually on the first Tuesday in April.

Black students were admitted, beginning in 1953.

The presidential search committee reviewed some 80 applications before offering the job to Harrisonburg attorney Phillip C. Stone, a member of the board of trustees and 1965 alumnus of the College.

Geisert announced in 1993 that he would retire the following year after 30 years as president of Bridgewater College.

By the time Stone celebrated his 10th anniversary at Bridgewater in 2004, enrollment had increased 78 percent.