blinn COLLEGE

Blinn College, the Junior College District of Washington County, is situated in Brenham, Texas, and serves a Thirteen county service area with campuses in Schulenburg and Bryan. The college was founded in 1883 by the Southern German Conference of the Methodist denomination under the name of Mission Institution.

In 1889 the school's name was changed to Blinn Memorial College in honor of the Reverend Christian Blinn of New York who had donated a large sum of money to make the college possible. The school was originally founded for the purpose of training young men for the ministry, but over the course of time, to meet the demands of the public, academic courses were also added. After operating for 5 years as an institution for men only, Blinn College was made coeducational in 1888. Until 1927 the school was of academy rank. In 1927 the Board of Trustees, under leadership of President Philip Deschner, organized a junior college. In 1930 the school was merged with Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas). In 1934, a new charter was procured by the citizens of Brenham, and a private nonsectarian community college, under the name of Blinn College, was organized with 9 regents as the board of control. In February, 1937, all connection with Southwestern University and the Methodist denominations were severed. An election held in Washington County on June 8, 1937, for the purposes of creating a public junior college district and for levying a small tax, was successful. Blinn thus became the 1st county-owned junior college district in Texas. The college continues to operate as one of the largest of the state’s Fifty public junior/community college districts.