Blinn College

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Way out in Washington County, there's a college with a story that starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with a name that didn't stick. March 28, 1883, somebody hung out a shingle that read Mission Institute.

Methodist affiliated, which tells you something about the ambitions of the place right from the beginning. Now, Mission Institute is a fine name, solid, purposeful. But it wasn't going to stay that name for long.

In 1887, a gentleman by the name of Reverend Christian Blinn, all the way from New York, made a gift that built the main hall. You let somebody build you a hall, certain things tend to follow. By 1889, the name had been changed to Blinn Memorial.

The Reverend's name was now on the door, so to speak. The main building you can still reckon with today, that one went up in 1906. New century, new walls, same mission.

Then 1927 rolls around, and Blinn Memorial takes another step forward, becoming a junior college. From a modest institute founded in the spring of 1883 to a junior college more than four decades on. That is not a straight line.

That is a story. And Washington County has been living inside it ever since.

What the marker says

Founded as "Mission Institute", March 28, 1883. Methodist affiliated. 1887 gift of Rev. Christian Blinn of New York built main hall. Name was changed 1889 to Blinn Memorial. This main building erected 1906. Became junior college, 1927. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965