Annhurst College

Annhurst College (c. 1965)

Annhurst College

Location: Putnam (South Woodstock), Connecticut, USA

Opened: Founded in 1940, officially dedicated as Ker-Anna Junior College on September 23, 1941. Name changed to Annhurst College two years later.

Closed: Began admitting men in fall 1972, closed in 1980.

Ker-Anna Junior College was founded in 1940 by Mother Louis du Sacré-Coeur, D.H.S., the Provincial of the American Province of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit. As the name implies, it was a small Catholic college with a career focus. And it was for women only. The college was dedicated one year later, with the name being changed to Annhurst College two years after that. It was apparently around that time that it transitioned to a four-year Catholic women's liberal arts college. Annhurst was accredited in December 1956.

Interfaith service, Annhurst College (early 1970s)

Like many small Catholic women's liberal arts colleges in the late 1960s, it appears that Annhurst fell prey to declining enrollment. The decision to admit men in the fall of 1972, however, accomplished little in terms of reversing that trend. By the time Annhurst College was closed in 1980, only 25 of its approximately 400 students were male.

The 200-acre rural campus was eventually sold to Data General Corporation, one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Data General was bought out by EMC Corporation in 1999.

The college still maintains an active alumnae base, with a reunion held as recently as September 2011.