Western Seminary history

In 1944 the Board of Trustees acquired the present five-acre campus in Portland, OR. Classes at the new site convened in the fall of that year.

Following the union of the two denominations in 1958, the seminaries consolidated.

The other branch of our pre-1959 history began with the establishment, in 1785 by Joseph Smith and in 1787 by John McMillan, of classical academies in Washington, Pa.

In 1981, it launched an innovative video instruction program which quickly expanded to serve hundreds of students per year; today that program has become the Global Campus.

In October 1987 Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon entered into a partnership with churches in Phoenix to establish a local seminary.

Founded in 1988, Phoenix Seminary continues to be the only accredited graduate-level theological seminary with its main campus located in Arizona.

In July 1994, with the approval of the board of Western Seminary, Phoenix Seminary became independent, a private not-for-profit institution.

In April 2000 the Seminary moved to new premises of 10,800 square feet on Scottsdale Road where the Seminary could house the entire library, one classroom and office space for faculty, administration and staff.

In 2005, Western expanded its training sites along the west coast by establishing learning cohorts in such cities as Seattle and Richland, Washington, Reno, Nevada and Bakersfield, California.

In 2013, Western Seminary changed the name of its online learning department to Western Seminary Online Campus (formerly "Center for Lifelong Learning") as it began to offer its fully online degree program.