Beulah and Upland College in California

Beulah College and Bible School began in an Upland, California, church in autumn 1920, serving Brethren in Christ families and preparing young adults for Christian service. Its aims included missionary preparation, biblical study, and broader academic training. In 1935 supporters acquired the former San Antonio hospital property for a permanent campus. The institution became Upland College in 1949.

Alumni later remembered an interdisciplinary, team-taught general education and opportunities for dialogue across the small campus. Financial difficulties and declining enrollment led trustees to close the college before the 1965–1966 academic year, and it merged with Messiah College in Pennsylvania. The joint alumni association helped preserve Upland’s identity and relationships with its graduates. Conflicting closure years appear in some later summaries; the 1965 date used here follows firsthand alumni testimony and the receiving institution’s own history.