Pillsbury Baptist Bible College - History

History

The campus was first opened as the Minnesota Academy on September 10, 1877 by the Minnesota Baptist State Convention as a college preparatory school. The name was changed to the Pillsbury Academy in 1886 in honor of one of its chief donors, George A. Pillsbury of the First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, and onetime mayor of the city. In 1920 it was renamed the Pillsbury Military Academy. In 1957, after a dispute resulted in a change in Baptist Convention control from American Baptist to fundamentalist Minnesota Baptist, the Academy was abruptly closed and reconstituted as a 4-year biblical arts college, Pillsbury Baptist Bible College.

The older structures on campus, roughly bounded by Academy, Grove, and Main Streets, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 22, 1987 as the Pillsbury Academy Campus Historic District. These include Old Main and Kelly Hall.

In February 2005, Pillsbury received accreditation by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). Pillsbury also had membership in the American Association of Christian Colleges and Seminaries.

Enrollment at the school had dropped from a high of about 800 in the 1970s to 142 in its final semester.

Pillsbury announced in October 2008 that it would permanently close at the end of the year and that its campus would be sold. The college closed on December 31, 2008. Pillsbury's transcripts are now held by Maranatha Baptist Bible College in perpetuity.