Hardin College and Conservatory of Music was a women's college located in Mexico, Missouri. It opened in 1873 and closed in 1932 due to financial pressures caused by the Great Depression. Harden was the home of the Alpha chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges

History

Charles Henry Hardin, Missouri senator and later Governor of Missouri, founded Hardin College and Conservatory of Music in Mexico, Missouri in 1873. Hardin served as president the college' board of trustees and contributed land and an endowment. Ninety girls enrolled in the initial class. It had students from Missouri and California, Illinois, the Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Kansas, and Texas. Rev. Blake Smith, who became the college's president in February 1931, resigned on January 29, 1932. Later that month, the faculty of the college collectively sued for $26,000 of backpay. The college closed in June 1932 after completion of the semester on May 25, 1932, and did not reopen in the fall of 1932. The campus was sold at a courthouse auction on December 4, 1933.

The Missouri Military Academy leased the former campus from June 1, 1933 to June 30, 1934, with plans to start a junior college. The campus was used by the unrelated Hardin Junior College, starting in 1942. Its Pierian and Delphian literary societies participated in oratory and debate, forming a campus team that attended the Missouri Junior College Debating Association.

  • Roberta Lawson, Native American activist and clubwoman

Faculty

  • Priscilla Baird, president of the college before leaving to establish Baird College
  • Louise Pettibone Smith, taught English and Latin at the college before becoming a professor in the Department of Biblical History at Wellesley College
  • M. Louise Thomas, taught at the college for six years before founding Lenox Hall in St. Louis
  • William M. Treloar, taught music at the college before becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Victor C. Vaughan, taught Latin and chemistry at the college, later the dean of the University of Michigan Medical School from 1891 to 1921

See also

  • List of current and historical women's universities and colleges
  • List of defunct colleges and universities in Missouri

References