Sanford University

Sanford University

Sanford University is a private, coeducational university located in Home wood, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College. Sanford University is the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Sanford University is Alabama's top-ranked private university. The university enrolls 4,933 students from 44 states and 25 countries. Sanford University has been nationally ranked for academic programs, value and affordability by Kiplinger's Personal Finance, The Princeton Review and Colleges of Distinction.

In 1841, Sanford University was founded as Howard College in Marion, Alabama. Some of the land was donated by Reverend James H. Devotee, who served on the Sanford Board of Trustees for fifteen years and as its President for two years. The first financial gift, $4,000, was given by Julia Tarrant Barron and both she and her son also gave land to establish the college. The university was established after the Alabama Baptist State Convention decided to build a school for men in Perry County, Alabama. The college's first nine students began studies in January 1842 with a traditional curriculum of language, literature and sciences. In October 1854, a fire destroyed all of the college's property, including its only building. In those early years the graduation addresses of several distinguished speakers were published, including those by Thomas G. Keen of Mobile, Joseph Walters Taylor, Noah K. Davis and Samuel Sterling Sherman. While the college recovered from the fire, the Civil War began. Howard College was converted to a military hospital by the Confederate government in 1863. During this time, the college's remaining faculty offered basic instruction to soldiers recovering at the hospital. For a short period after the war, federal troops occupied the college and sheltered freed slaves on its campus. In 1865 the college reopened. Howard College's board of trustees accepted real estate and funding from the city of Birmingham, Alabama in 1887

In 1913, the college became fully and permanently coeducational. Howard College added its School of Music in 1914 and School of Education and Journalism the following year. The college introduced its Department of Pharmacy in 1927. At the time, it was the only program of its kind in the Southeastern United States. During World War II, Howard College hosted a V-12 Navy College Training Program, allowing enlisted sailors to earn college degrees while receiving military training. The number of veterans attended the college after the war boosted enrollment beyond capacity.