Dallas Baptist University (Decatur Baptist College)

For sixty-seven years the college was a small junior college for Baptist students bound for Baylor. By 1959 it typically employed twelve faculty and enrolled about 150, mostly from within fifty miles of Decatur. A $20,000 endowment and a $10,000 annual gift from the Baptist Executive Board paid the bills, supplemented by tuition and board fees. Students were expected to attend chapel and church, and two Bible courses were required to graduate. By 1958 it claimed to be the oldest junior college in the world, with property valued at $250,000. Enrollment reached 4,032 in fall 2000.

What the plaque says

Dallas Baptist University (Decatur Baptist College) Closely linked to Northwest Baptist College, which operated from 1891 to 1897, Decatur Baptist College opened its doors in 1898. The college was the result of an effort by Texas Baptist leaders to consolidate all Texas Baptist Schools under the direction of Baylor University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The college, which initially served primary and secondary school students in addition to the junior college program, had an enrollment of 105 in the fall of 1898. J. L. Ward, president of the college from 1900 to 1907 and 1914 to 1950, was most influential in the development and expansion of the college. By 1959 the school offered courses in religion, fine arts, business, languages, and vocational training. Increasing financial challenges and decreasing enrollment led the college to accept an invitation to move to Dallas. The school's name was changed to Dallas Baptist College in February 1965; its first classes were held that fall, with an enrollment of 941. The college became a four-year institution in 1968. Renamed Dallas Baptist University in 1985, the school began awarding graduate degrees in religion, education, and business administration. The school grew steadily under the leadership of a new president beginning in 1988 and paid its outstanding financial debts. By the 1990s, the population of the college community exceeded 3,500 as the school affirmed in its mission statement its commitment. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 5.2 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 9.5 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 10 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 10 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.

More markers nearby

• John Shelby Wisdom — 2.4 mi
• Hensley Field — 2.7 mi
• Avion Village — 3.2 mi
• Jordan-Bowles House — 3.5 mi