Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

Old Main (top) and Kelly Hall (bottom)
Undergraduates 142[1]
Location Owatonna, Minnesota
Campus Rural area
Website http://camppillsbury.com/

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College (formerly, the Pillsbury Military Academy) was an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Christian college in Owatonna, Minnesota, founded in 1957. It closed permanently in 2008. [1]

Pillsbury described itself as a "biblical arts college." It offered a four-year program leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Bible and Bachelor of Science in Bible, as well as several associate degrees and a Bible certificate program.

History

The campus was first opened as the Minnesota Academy on September 10, 1877 by the Minnesota Baptist State Convention as a college preparatory school. The name was changed to the Pillsbury Academy in 1886 in honor of one of its chief donors, George A. Pillsbury of the First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, and one time mayor of the city. In 1920 it was renamed the Pillsbury Military Academy. In 1957, after a dispute resulted in a change in Baptist Convention control from American Baptist to fundamentalist Minnesota Baptist, the Academy was abruptly closed and reconstituted as a 4-year biblical arts college, Pillsbury Baptist Bible College.[2]

The older structures on campus, roughly bounded by Academy, Grove, and Main Streets, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 22, 1987 as the Pillsbury Academy Campus Historic District. These include Old Main and Kelly Hall.

A modern academic building on the closed campus in 2011

In February 2005, Pillsbury received accreditation by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE).[3] Pillsbury also had membership in the American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries.[4]

Enrollment at the school had dropped from a high of about 800 in the 1970s to 142 in its final semester.[1]

Pillsbury announced in October 2008 that it would permanently close at the end of the year and that its campus would be sold.[1][5] The college closed on December 31, 2008.[1] Pillsbury's transcripts are now held by Maranatha Baptist University in perpetuity.

In April 2014 the campus was purchased and revamped as a summer camp called Camp Pillsbury which opened in June 2014.[6] In addition to the camp programs that will be offered, a technical charter school operated by the Technical Academies of Minnesota will be housed on campus.[7]

Athletics

Athletic teams were called the Comets. The school had football, baseball, wrestling, cross country, soccer and basketball for men and volleyball, cross country, softball, cheerleading and basketball for women. Pillsbury Baptist Bible college was a NCAA division III institution. It was a member of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference until 1988. They were the men's golf champions of their conference in 1995.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Pillsbury Baptist Bible College closes". Owatonna People's Press. January 11, 2009. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  2. ↑ http://www.pillsburyacademy.com/history.html
  3. ↑ "Pillsbury Achieves Accreditation" (PDF). Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. Summer 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-09-07. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
  4. ↑ American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries
  5. ↑ Pillsbury College website, accessed October 22, 2008
  6. ↑ "Camp Pillsbury hosts grand opening in Owatonna". Owatonna People's Press. June 16, 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
  7. ↑ "Technical Academies of Minnesota set for 2015 opening". Owatonna People's Press. June 30, 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-02.

External links