Mar 18: Gooding College

On March 18, 1983, the Gooding College Campus, in Gooding, Idaho, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its areas of historical significance include architecture, engineering, social history, education, and educational-related housing. (Main College building. Get Inn photo, GetInnIdaho.com)

Gooding College was established by the Methodist Church and received its first students in September 1917. For most of its existence, the College President was Charles Wesley Tenney.

The school offered an excellent Bachelor of Arts degree and several of its alumni went on to fine careers in the arts and education. Charles D. Tenney, the president's son, graduated from the College, earned a Ph.D. at the University of Oregon, and had a distinguished half-century career at Southern Illinois University.

With the growth of other colleges around the state, the school began losing enrollment and finally shut down in 1938. Three years later, the property passed to the state of Idaho, which converted the buildings to the Tuberculosis Hospital in 1946.

That facility operated for over twenty years; however, the Campus function was listed as “Vacant/Not in Use” when it was placed on the Historic list in 1983. Today, the “Get Inn” company is renovating the main building as a bed & breakfast, and hotel. (Get Inn grounds.)



References: [Hawley]

“Educational News – Idaho,” Journal of Education: New England and National, Volume 89, Boston (1919).

“Gooding College Campus,” National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service.

“Charles D. Tenney, the Man Behind the Words,” CornerStone, The Newsletter of Morris Library, Southern Illinois University,  Carbondale (Winter 2008).