Westminster Castle - Pillar of Fire

Pillar of Fire

At its peak, the Crown Point property was worth nearly a half a million dollars. But after the devastating closure and three-year abandonment, was purchased by Bishop Alma White of the Pillar of Fire Church for $40,000 on January 31, 1920. Included in the sale was the main college building, 45 acres (180,000 m2) of land, a power plant, and two houses (one a student's dormitory, the other the President's house.)

The sale was a good deal, but the state of the buildings left the church with $75,000 worth of repairs. Shattered windows, cracked walls, and broken plaster were the main structural complaints, but the once regal building had also become a glorified barn with thousands of chickens in the basement and farm machinery on the first floor.

In spite of the enormity of the work, the new Westminster University opened to students on September 7, 1920, just eight months after the purchase. Within six years of opening, the school, now known as Belleview Schools, had received its accreditation and was ready for decades of education.

In the late 1920s the campus was frequently used for Ku Klux Klan meetings and cross burnings. But in 1997, the Pillar of Fire Church, the school's owner and parent organization, repudiated its historical association with the Klan.