Eastern Nazarene College
The Eastern Nazarene College was a private, Christian college in Quincy, Massachusetts. Established as a holiness college in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1900, the college moved to Rhode Island for several years. With its expansion to a four-year curriculum, it relocated to Wollaston Park in Quincy in 1919. It expanded to additional sites in Quincy and, in the late 20th century, to satellite sites across the state. Its academic programs were primarily undergraduate, with some professional graduate education offered.
In June 2024, ENC announced that it would close in May 2025.
Instead, the college to Gordon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and Trevecca Nazarene University.
The campus was put on the market. As of December 2025, the college's campus has not been sold.
History
New York
On September 25, 1900, several come-outer Methodist clergy and laymen affiliated with the 19th-century Holiness movement opened a co-educational collegiate institute at the Garden View House in Saratoga Springs, New York. In a time when pentecostal served as a synonym for holiness, it was named the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute. It was established to provide liberal education and ministry training in a preparatory academy, four-year college, and theological seminary. PCI operated under the auspices of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, a loose association of Wesleyan-holiness churches from eastern Canada down to the Middle Atlantic, and its own board of education. Lyman C. Pettit served as its first president. PCI was accredited by the New York State Education Department's board of regents of the University of the State of New York and was given state funding because a public school did not exist there at the time. In 1901, the institute changed locations in Saratoga Springs, from the Garden View House to the former Kenmore Hotel.Rhode Island
The plans for a liberal arts college were delayed, however. There was a falling out between Pettit and the APCA. The school was moved to Rhode Island, where it re-opened on September 16, 1902, in North Scituate, Rhode Island. It did not yet have a post-secondary curriculum. Having been the originator of the idea for establishing PCI and having already surveyed the Rhode Island location, Fred A. Hillery had purchased the North Scituate campus on behalf of the association. Its Greek Revival buildings were originally designed for the Smithville Seminary in 1839 by Russell Warren, the leading Greek Revival architect in New England in the 19th century. The campus had been empty since 1876, when the Lapham Institute closed. After the move, the school attracted students from a variety of denominations. Only one-quarter to one-third of the student body was affiliated with the school's supporting denomination during any given academic year. In 1907, the APCA merged with the Church of the Nazarene. In 1908 PCI was one of the first three schools chosen to be officially affiliated with the Nazarenes.In 1917, it was decided to develop the planned liberal arts college. On June 14, 1918, the Eastern Nazarene College was chartered with degree-granting authority in the state of Rhode Island. Secondary education was conducted by the Eastern Nazarene Academy. Choosing a new name, however, would be difficult: the school was now a liberal arts college and a Nazarene institution. Candidates included: "Northeastern Nazarene College", "Bresee Memorial College", "Nazarene College of the Northeast", and "Nazarene College and Bresee Theological Institute". General Superintendent John W. Goodwin is credited with the chosen name. He wrote to Hiram F. Reynolds, a general superintendent and long-time supporter of the school: "I know you will do your best for our New England College. I should be glad if they would change the name to the Eastern Nazarene College, or something like that. It would seem we must have a school there, although it moves along hard and slow."
Massachusetts
In 1919, the college moved to its current location in the Wollaston Park area of Quincy, Massachusetts. The founders wanted the new college to be located near either Harvard or Yale, so that its graduates could attend graduate school at one or the other. Quincy won out over New Haven, Connecticut because the educational standards were known to be higher in Massachusetts In addition, president-elect Fred J. Shields would accept the position only if the college were to be located near Boston. At the time of purchase, the property was the site of the Josiah Quincy Mansion, built for Josiah Quincy Jr. Angell Hall was built here. Other buildings included one from 1896, used for the classroom building called the Manchester, stables , and one from 1901, which now serves as Canterbury Hall. The former PCI campus in Rhode Island was purchased in 1920 by William S. Holland, who moved his Watchman Institute there in 1923. He served African-American youths at that location for decades.| J. E. L. Moore | 1918–1919 | |
| 1. | Frederick James Shields | 1919–1923 |
| 2. | Floyd William Nease | 1923–1930 |
| 3. | Robert Wayne Gardner | 1930–1936 |
| 4. | Gideon Brooks Williamson | 1936–1944 |
| 5. | Samuel Young | 1944–1948 |
| 6. | Edward Stebbins Mann | 1948–1970 |
| 7. | A. Leslie Parrott Jr. | 1970–1975 |
| 8. | Donald Irwin | 1975–1980 |
| 9. | Stephen Wesley Nease | 1980–1989 |
| 10. | Cecil Roland Paul | 1989–1992 |
| 11. | Kent R. Hill | 1992–2001 |
| Albert L. Truesdale Jr. | 2001–2002 | |
| 12. | J. David McClung | 2002–2005 |
| 13. | Corlis A. McGee | 2005–2017 |
| Dan Boone | 2017–2018 | |
| Timothy Wooster | 2018–2019 | |
| 14 | Jack Connell | 2019–2023 |
| 15 | Colleen Derr | 2023– |
The trustees of the college were incorporated by the state in 1920, by which time its liberal arts identity had been "quite firmly established." It did not gain Bachelor of Arts degree-granting power from the commonwealth for another decade, after the curriculum and faculty were established. On January 28, 1930, President Floyd W. Nease appealed directly to the General Court of Massachusetts for degree-granting authority, defending ed his petition before the Joint Committee on Education and the state House and Senate. He cited financial records, campus improvement plans, and prominent community leaders; the bill passed in both houses and was signed by Governor Frank G. Allen on March 12, 1930. The news reached the college the following afternoon. The next year under President R. Wayne Gardner, the trustees reaffirmed that the college would remain "distinctly interdenominational and cosmopolitan in service."
The college seal, designed by alumnus Harold G. Gardner and incorporating the college motto, Via, Veritas, Vita, was adopted by the trustees on the recommendation of the president and the student body in 1932. A college banner displayed the emblems of Verbum, Lux, Spiritus, Crux. The college had been chartered in 1918 with a school of music, President Gardner secured certification for the college as a teacher-training institution with the Massachusetts Department of Education in 1933. The college established a graduate program in theology starting in 1938. It was one of two Nazarene schools before 1945 to offer graduate courses. Evolutionary biology was taught in the classroom at least as early as 1937. On May 8, 1941, Governor Leverett Saltonstall approved Eastern Nazarene to grant Bachelor of Science degrees. By 1943 ENC had a cooperative degree program in engineering with Northeastern University.
Under President Gideon B. Williamson on December 3, 1943, the Eastern Nazarene College gained accreditation from the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. It was the second Nazarene college to gain institutional accreditation. ENC was admitted to the Association of American Colleges in 1944, and an affiliation with Quincy City Hospital for nurses' training began in that same year. Eastern Nazarene was soon dubbed "Our Quincy's College" by the Quincy Patriot Ledger. It works to maintain good town and gown relations with the city.
The Eastern Nazarene Academy closed after 1955. Starting in 1956, professors Timothy L. Smith and Charles W. Akers began to establish a community college for the city of Quincy.
In 1964, the graduate course in theology was discontinued and replaced with a master's degree program in religion. The college archives were created in 1963. The first history of the college, spanning from 1900 to 1950, was published by James R. Cameron in 1968.
Under President Irwin in 1977, plans were made to relocate the college to a parcel of land in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, by purchasing the faltering Charles E. Ellis School for Girls. The proposed move was unpopular among students and members of the Quincy community. Governor Michael Dukakis also urged the administration to reconsider. The college was outbid for the land by a corporation that wanted to establish an industrial park, and it stayed in Quincy. In 1981, graduate degree offerings were expanded. It started an accelerated program for working adults in 1990. In 1991, a report issued by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts determined that the college contributed nearly $10 million to the local economy and brought in an estimated $7 million from outside the state.
In 1992, President Kent Hill approved a policy to hire only Christian professors at the college. This decision generated controversy in the media but was intended for the hiring of new faculty. The American Civil Liberties Union determined that it was reasonable according to civil rights laws. A second history of the college, spanning from 1950 to 2000, was started in 1993.
In 1995, the college pursued relocation to a larger campus, planning to purchase the former campus of the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph, Massachusetts, from the Sisters of St. Joseph, but the deal fell through. Instead, the college began to expand at other locations in Quincy, buying a piece of land along Hancock Street later that year, and the year after that purchasing an adjoining parcel along Old Colony Avenue. This was the former site of a Howard Johnson's candy factory and executive offices. In 1997, the college expanded beyond the metro Boston area for the first time, establishing a learning annex in central Massachusetts to serve as part of its adult studies division.
The Old Colony Campus in Wollaston, as the new site on Old Colony Avenue had come to be named, was renovated as the Adams Executive Center. The Cecil R. Paul Center for Business was founded at the Old Colony location in 1999, and the James R. Cameron Center for History, Law, & Government was added in 2005. In 2001, just before the end of his second term, then-president Kent R. Hill was appointed the new Global Health Administrator for USAID. In 2008, ENC established satellite campuses in Boston, Brockton, Fall River, and Swansea, Massachusetts.