Eastern Arizona College has provided educational opportunities to residents of Southeastern Arizona for over 135 years. Throughout the past century, EA has gone through many changes, including being renamed nine times, becoming a public college, and expanding its campus from a single building in the Gila Valley to multiple locations across three counties. While the college has experienced tremendous growth, its commitment to providing educational opportunities for all continues to shape its programs and services.
Chartered in 1888 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and founded long before statehood, Eastern Arizona College has a distinguished history as Arizona’s oldest community college. Early Gila Valley pioneers cared deeply about the quality of their children’s education and, soon after settling the valley, established the St. Joseph Stake Academy, which officially opened on December 8, 1890, with 17 students. Christopher Layton, an early Gila Valley pioneer and local church leader, served as president of the school’s first Board of Trustees and helped establish early school protocols and curriculum.
The first classes were held on December 8, 1890, in a local church building in Central, Arizona. However, most students lived in Thatcher, and the travel time to Central proved burdensome. Early the next spring, the academy was moved to an adobe building in Thatcher, but within a year, the school had outgrown this building. Consequently, in 1891, the fledgling academy moved from the one-room adobe to a new brick building (known as the Tithing Building) built by Christopher Layton, where it remained for 16 years.
The school was successful in its first years, yet struggled financially. Although many teachers and administrators took much of their pay in farm produce, the academy had accumulated serious debt by 1895. That December, an epidemic of diphtheria and membranous croup struck the valley, claiming many children’s lives and forcing the school to close for three weeks. When it reopened, attendance faltered and, in February of 1896, the school closed its doors for four years.
Despite this setback, the board decided in the spring of 1898 to construct a $1,500 addition to the tithing building and reopen the school in September 1898 under the direction of the new Church Stake President Andrew Kimball. Then, as now, school officials emphasized a curriculum that would be of practical benefit to students. Telegraphy was a popular class now that Morse Code messages could be sent over newly strung telegraph lines. In addition, engineering, shorthand, typing, and practical business classes drew students from throughout the Arizona territory.
Over the next several years, the school experienced enrollment growth to the extent that the current facilities were no longer adequate. Therefore, in 1903, the College Board appropriated $2,200 for the purchase of property in Thatcher for the erection of a new academy building with 21 rooms. The Board of Education appropriated an additional $12,000 toward the building cost, with the remaining $14,000 to be raised through donations. The cornerstone was laid in 1908, and the building eventually became known as ‘Old Main’.
Throughout the next several years, the college continued to grow as enrollment increased and new programs and athletic teams were developed. During the 1920’s, the college often made headlines on sports pages. Its football team beat the University of Arizona Wildcats in only its second year of existence, 1926. The men’s basketball team won the state title three years in a row and, in 1927, posted a perfect 33 -0 record. This earned the team a birth in that year’s national AAU Junior College tournament.
The school also developed other programs that were just as successful as its athletic teams, including one of the largest music programs in the area and an excellent drama program. Over a nine-year period from 1927 to 1935, the drama program presented an annual play called the Red Knoll’s Pageant. It was a theatrical production presented in a natural amphitheatre within the nearby rock formation, Red Knolls, with outstanding acoustics.
In an effort to expand the curriculum and number of classes offered, the college began a night school with 17 courses in 1931. However, the school did not have enough money to pay the teachers. Incredibly, the faculty members who taught night classes donated their time.
In late 1932, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints determined to close the college unless the people of the Gila Valley agreed to assume control. The Graham County Board of Supervisors scheduled an election for March 1933 to decide the question. Voters saved the school by a vote of 1,564 to 366. Shortly thereafter, in 1938, high school-level courses were eliminated from the curriculum. The name of the college was renamed to “Gila Junior College of Graham County”, then again to “Eastern Arizona Junior College” in 1950.
After World War II ended, the campus began to boom as young men returned to take advantage of the G.I. Bill. Several new facilities, including classroom buildings, a library, and a new dormitory, were built to accommodate the rise in enrollment.
By the early 1960’s, the school again faced financial difficulty, and new funds were needed. John Mickelson, a state senator and former president of the College Governing Board, sponsored legislation to establish the state system of junior colleges, and county voters overwhelmingly approved the college’s entry into the state system by a vote of 4,233 to 29. On July 1, 1962, Eastern Arizona Junior College became the first member of Arizona’s Junior College System. Thanks to the new law, the state began providing a portion of the school’s maintenance and operating costs, thereby relieving some of the school’s financial burden.
In anticipation of future growth, the college tripled the size of its 16-acre campus by purchasing the 34 acres that now comprise South Campus. A building boom ensued. Plans were drawn up for a new gymnasium, football field and stadium, baseball diamond, softball field, 13 classrooms, and three large lecture halls. The new campus was dedicated on September 21, 1963, and a year later, a new men’s dormitory, Mark Allen Hall, was dedicated as well, built on the spot where Christopher Layton’s home once stood. Soon after, in 1966, the college changed its name once more to “Eastern Arizona College”.
Construction on the South campus continued for the next several years and included a new Vocational-Industrial facility built in 1967. The facility enabled many new courses to be offered in the technical-vocational and general education areas.
Fine Arts programs also benefited from the building boom. Since its earliest days, the school has been the hub of most cultural programs in the Gila Valley. However, the music, dance, and drama programs were hampered by inadequate facilities. These were jump-started by a $50,000 donation from alumnus Walter Johnson, which initiated plans for a new auditorium and performing arts center with a full-size stage and seating capacity of 1,000. The Fine Arts Center was dedicated on August 28, 1972, and continues to serve the college today.
In 1979, tragedy struck the Thatcher campus. Two fires in a week’s time destroyed ‘Old Main,’ and after nearly 70 years of service, it was razed and replaced by a new administration building.
Throughout the college’s distinguished history, it has had 10 names. Over 42 years of church sponsorship, it was successively known as the St. Joseph Stake Academy, the Latter-day Saint Academy, Gila Academy, Gila Normal College, Gila Junior College, and Gila College, and then back to Gila Junior College. As mentioned in brief previously, when it became a public institution in 1933, the words ‘of Graham County’ were added. In 1950, indicating its broad sphere of influence, yet another shift made it Eastern Arizona Junior College, and in 1966, a perhaps final change dropped the word junior in favor of Eastern Arizona College.
First accredited by the North Central Association in 1917, EA received its first 10-year accreditation, the highest available, in 1986. This was repeated in 1996.
During 1987 and 1988, a yearlong centennial celebration was held in honor of EA’s 100th anniversary. The Red Knoll’s Pageant was revived, featuring Joan of Arc, which was first produced in 1931. Thousands of alumni returned to campus for the event, and proclamations and congratulatory greetings were received from the White House, Arizona’s Governor, and many others.
Today, after more than 135 years of illustrious history, EA’s reputation for academic rigor and fiscal responsibility is second to none in the state’s community college system. EA has consistently implemented educational innovations, both small and large, to better serve students, faculty, and surrounding communities. Recent student service developments include computer support for advising, registration, tuition, and fee payment in every full-time faculty member’s office; publication of a full academic year class schedule; a single registration for the full academic year; the development and publication of competencies for all courses; and the development of the middle campus facilities.
From Christopher Layton to Lois Ann Moody, generations of dedicated governing officials, faculty, and staff have worked tirelessly to make EA one of Arizona’s academic and cultural highlights.
Today, EA offers many associate degrees and certificates of proficiency and serves students on the main campus in Thatcher and at the Greenlee location. Students may also earn bachelor’s degrees in five areas of study and master’s degrees, post-degree certificates, and endorsements in nine majors on the EA Thatcher Campus through Northern Arizona University.
With each succeeding year, EA is better positioned to continue its outstanding record of service to Southeastern Arizona and to the state at large. We work hard to ensure that for our students, futures begin at Eastern Arizona College.