Centre College

Centre College is a private liberal arts college located in Danville, Kentucky, a community of approximately 16,000 in Boyle County, about 35 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky. Centre is an undergraduate four-year institution with an enrollment of approximately 1,375 students. Centre was founded by Presbyterian leaders, with whom it maintains a loose affiliation, and officially chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819. The College is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South.

History

The Kentucky General Assembly established Centre College on January 21, 1819. The College was named for its proximate location in the geographic "centre" of the Commonwealth, using early nineteenth century America's contemporaneous spelling of the word. Auspiciously, the legislature placed many of Kentucky's most prominent citizens in charge of Centre College's Board of Trustees with Isaac Shelby, the Commonwealth's first governor, serving as chair. Classes began in the fall of 1820 in Old Centre, the first building on campus and the oldest college administration building west of the Allegheny Mountains.