Anatolia College - History

History

In 1810, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was founded in Boston and established the Bebek Seminary outside Constantinople in 1840. In 1862 it was transferred to Merzifon and in 1886 the Anatolia College of Mersovan was founded as a theological seminary with Charles Tracy as President. The students were principally Greek and Armenian, most coming from outside of Merzifon and boarding at the school while the faculty was Greek, Armenian, and American. Enrollment soon reached 115 students. In 1893, the girl's school was also founded.

In 1920, enrollment stood at 218 students, with an equal number in the girls' school and the campus consisted of more than 40 New England style buildings. Anatolia included a kindergarten, a school for the deaf, high schools for boys and girls, a college-level program, a theological seminary, one of the largest hospitals in Asia Minor, and an orphanage for 2000 orphans.

With help from Eleftherios Venizelos, Anatolia reopened in Thessaloniki in 1924, renting buildings in Harilaou, with 13 students, mostly refugees. Enrollment soon reached 157, while the Mission School for Girls in Thessaloniki became part of Anatolia College Anatolia in 1927. In 1934 the school moved to the newly constructed campus above the city near the village of Pylaia, on the lower slopes of Mt. Hortiatis.

When Greece entered World War II upon the Italian invasion in 1940, the school closed and the campus was used as military hospital. When Germany invaded Greece the campus was taken over by the Germans as general headquarters for the Balkans. The surrender documentations of Greece were signed in the school's main building, Macedonia Hall. In 1944-45 the campus was occupied by the British Army (the last units would not leave until 1949).

At the end of the war Anatolia reopened, as repair of the damaged campus proceeded. The girls' school was moved into temporary quarters on the Anatolia campus after its building on Allatini Street burned. For a number of years the schools remained separate, but co-education was completed by the end of the 1980s. However, the two schools are still administrated by different Deans. The final division of Anatolia College, the I.B. school, was established in 1998.

In the meanwhile, a secretariat school was established in 1964. In 1981, the School of Business Administration and Liberal Arts (SBALA) was founded to provide post-secondary instruction in business and the liberal arts and in 1993 the first four-year baccalaureate in liberal arts was awarded. In 1997, the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) was finally accredited by New England Association of Schools and Colleges.