History
Texas Wesleyan University was originally founded as Polytechnic College by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1890. A committee under the direction of Bishop Joseph S. Key explored locations for a campus and settled on a site east of Fort Worth donated by area pioneers A. S. Hall, W. D. Hall, and George Tandy. The school held its first classes in September 1891 with a handful of faculty members and 111 students. In 1902, H. A. Boaz assumed the presidency and managed a period of moderate growth. He hoped to develop Polytechnic College into a new university for Southern Methodism.
When Dallas was selected by Methodist Church leaders as the site for Southern Methodist University, the Polytechnic campus was designated the "woman’s college for Southern Methodism," eventually becoming Texas Woman’s College in 1914, attracting young women from around Texas and the Southwest. However, when faced with dwindling resources during the Great Depression, the college's trustees voted to close the school in 1931. A merger with the financially secure Texas Wesleyan Academy in Austin saved the college from failure and resulted in the formation of Texas Wesleyan College in 1934. Men were readmitted that same year, returning the institution to a coeducational status.
The university added graduate programs in education in the 1970s and in nurse anesthesia in the 1980s. After contemplating a relocation of the campus to a west Fort Worth site, Texas Wesleyan renewed its commitment to its historic Polytechnic Heights Neighborhood location by building the Eunice and James L. West Library in October 1988. Recognizing the growth in programs, trustees changed the name of the institution to Texas Wesleyan University, effective in January 1989.
To add flexibility in the scheduling of courses and to recognize the special needs of adult learners, the university added the C.E. Hyde Weekend/Evening Program in 1994. The university established a campus in downtown Fort Worth in 1997 with the relocation of the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, which was established in 1992 following the acquisition of the former Dallas/Fort Worth School of Law.
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