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| Giddings Hall at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Ky. |
Georgetown College, the first Baptist college west of the Alleghenies, was charted in 1829. The Baptists originally considered adding their college to the Transylvania University in Lexington, but locals persuaded the Baptists to locate the college in Georgetown through the use of $20,000 and a transfer of the assets and absorption of the Rittenhouse Academy. Rittenhouse was a land-grant institution founded by Baptist minister Rev. Elijah Craig (also renowned as a bourbon distiller). Everything almost failed when a Campbellite (Rev. Barton Stone) moved to Georgetown to run the Academy (the Baptists weren’t fond of the Campbellites).
Obviously, the squabbles were put to rest and GC remains. Today, it has nearly 2,000 students (combination of graduate, undergraduate bodies).
Update: @KyHistSoc reminds me of the legend of Bourbon at the above-pictured Giddings Hall: Bluegrass Note: Rev. Elijah Craig also founded Georgetown College. Legend has it that a quart of bourbon reposes under each of the six Ionic columns of the portico of the oldest building on campus, Giddings Hall, built in 1839.