Georgetown College

Georgetown College is a small, private, Christian liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Kentucky, United States. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown College was the first Baptist college west of the Allegheny Mountains. With a low student-to-faculty ratio of 11-to-1, the College offers many undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in Education.

Location

Georgetown College is located in the Bluegrass region of Central Kentucky, 12 miles north of Lexington, KY, approximately 70 miles east of Louisville, KY, and 75 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio.

History

Georgetown College traces its roots to Royal Springs Academy, a classical school founded by Baptist minister Elijah Craig in Georgetown in 1787. The institution was renamed Rittenhouse Academy in 1798 as part of a land grant agreement, and was led by Barton Stone, a co-founder of the Stone Campbell Movement, 1816–19. The academy declined and closed by 1829.

In 1829, the Kentucky General Assembly chartered the Kentucky Baptist Education Society with the purpose of establishing a Baptist college in the state. Twenty-four trustees under the leadership of Silas Noel selected the town of Georgetown as the site for the new school. Georgetown was selected because the community agreed to raise $20,000 and to donate the assets of the recently closed Rittenhouse Academy.