Southern Normal School and Bowling Green Business College

History

The Southern Normal School began when A. W. Mell and J. Tom Williams moved the Glasgow Normal School to Bowling Green and established the "Southern Normal School and Business College" in 1884. Chartered in 1886, the name was shortened to "Southern Normal School."

In the summer of 1890, Mell and Williams turned control of the school over to two recent graduates, H. A. Evans and W. J. Davis. At the end of the fall term, control was again transferred to J. R. Alexander and H. McD. Fletcher, but Fletcher left in 1891, and Alexander left the following year.

In the fall of 1892, Henry Hardin Cherry and Thomas Crittenden Cherry opened the Bowling Green Business College and Literary Institute. Although the school was newly incorporated May 31, 1893, the Cherry brothers regarded it as the direct successor to the Mell and Williams school. With the addition of a teacher training department in 1894, the school became known as the Southern Normal School and Bowling Green Business College.

Thomas C. Cherry sold his interest to Henry Hardin Cherry in 1899, although he returned as a teacher from 1902 to 1905. On July 21, 1899, the Southern Educational Building Company was incorporated to expand and modernize the school's facilities. Shortly after, on November 16, 1899, a fire destroyed the Southern Normal School building, intensifying the company's appeal for public subscriptions. The new building was completed in 1901 and was home to the Southern Normal School until 1911, when the school moved to "the Hill."

After a campaign to obtain state support for teacher training institutions, Western Kentucky State Normal School was established by legislation signed on March 21, 1906. On May 7, 1906, a commission appointed by Governor Beckham voted to locate the school in Bowling Green, and it became successor to the student body and goodwill of the Southern Normal School, with H. H. Cherry as president. The business school (renamed Bowling Green Business University in 1904) was sold effective July 1, 1907 to Joseph S. Dickey, W. S. Ashby and J. Lewie Harman.

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