- published: 19 Nov 2014
- views: 6159
Coordinates: 42°01′16″N 73°54′27″W / 42.02108°N 73.90756°W / 42.02108; -73.90756
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College," is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
Bard has a 600-acre (2.4-km²) campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, near the town of Red Hook, overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson has no downtown center and consists of the college and nine other non-associated houses. Nearby are the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli, and across the Hudson River are the small cities of Kingston and Saugerties. Shuttles run between the college and the two villages.
The college was originally founded under the name St. Stephen's, in association with the Episcopal church of New York City, and changed its name to Bard in 1934 in honor of its founder, John Bard. While the college remains affiliated with the church, it pursues a far more secular mission today. Between 1928 and 1944, Bard/St. Stephen's operated as an undergraduate school of Columbia University. Bard/St. Stephen's ties with Columbia were severed when Bard became a fully coeducational college.