Westminster College Historic District

About this property

Westminster College is a private liberal arts college in Fulton, Missouri, United States. It was established in 1851 as Fulton College. The school enrolled 609 students in 2020. America's National Churchill Museum is a historic site located on campus. Westminster College was founded as a college for young men by the Rev. William W. Robertson and local Presbyterians in 1851 as "Fulton College" and assumed the present name in 1853. Throughout the next century, Westminster College continued to be an all-male institution until the first coeducational class in 1979. In 1909, the original Westminster Hall was destroyed by fire, leaving only the six Corinthian columns which helped support it. Since then, the columns have been restored and serve as the site of a symbolic rite of passage for new and graduating students. During the convocation ceremony at the beginning of students' first year, students walk through the columns towards the campus, and then back through towards Westminster Avenue after their graduation ceremony at the end of their senior year. Westminster College was the site of former U.K. prime minister Winston Churchill's famous "Sinews of Peace" speech in 1946. Less than one year after the end of World War II, Churchill lectured about the state of world political affairs, notably regarding the growing tension in Europe during the prelude to the Cold War. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. In 1969, Westminster College dedicated one of its most recognizable landmarks, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. Originally built in the City of London in the 12th century, it was destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1677, and then was gutted by the Blitz in 1940. It stayed in London until 1966, when it was transported stone by stone to Fulton and reassembled on the Westminster College campus. The undercroft of the church is now home to America's National Churchill Museum. Also in 1969, Westminster College became independent of the Presbyterian Church, but it continues to maintain a loose affiliation today with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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