calsfoundation@cals.org
April 19, 1890
A nine-acre campus, located north of Arkadelphia (Clark County), was purchased from Harriet Barkman. The new campus was separated from Ouachita Baptist College by two ravines and several blocks. Architect Thomas Harding was contracted to build a structure to house the college. Founded as Arkadelphia Methodist College, the school would eventually be called Henderson-Brown College (HBC). One hundred and ten students arrived to start the first term at HBC, a private, co-educational Methodist college, on September 3, 1890. In 1929, the Little Rock Conference of the Methodist Church decided to consolidate Henderson-Brown with Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County). The campus was turned over to the state, which ran the school as Henderson State Teachers College, which became Henderson State University in 1975.