GUNTUR:Andhra Christian College, an enduring symbol of higher learning, is celebrating a reunion of old students on Thursday. Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao and ministers would attend the celebrations.
AC College was founded in 1842 by Father John Frederick Christian Heyer, a Lutheran Christian Missionary (Founder of AEL Church). It began as an Anglo-vernacular school by then English Collector Huddleston Stokes.
In 1885 the High School was upgraded to Second-Grade College by Dr. L.B.Wolf, the founder Principal and affiliated it to the Madras University. The new College was named the American Evangelical Lutheran Mission (AELM) College.
The college is interspersed with glorious buildings, the majestic Arthur G. Watts Memorial Building opened in 1893. Constructed in Gothic architectural style with huge brown granite boulders, thick walls and magnificent arches, the building is adjacent to monumental College Tower, standing 90feet tall with internal wooden stair case and wooden flooring of the first floor which was used as Assembly Hall.
As early as 1913, the college’s old boys association was formed and it is a measure of the progressive nature of the college, that two girls took admission in 1914.
In January 1928, during the third term of Dr. Strock as principal, the College was christened ‘Andhra Christian College’. Classes in BA were started as early as 1926.
Over the years, new facilities and buildings were constructed. The college has separate buildings for Natural Sciences, English, Education, Law. In 1959 a separate hostel complex for girls called “Strock Hall” was constructed across the college campus. An evening college was also started in 1970s.
The college has produced three Chief Ministers, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, NT Rama Rao and Bhavam Venkatarami Reddy besides numerous political leaders, film stars and doctors etc.
