Albany's History:
Albany College

The Oregon Legislature chartered the Albany Collegiate Institute in February 1867 and Albany residents raised $8,000 in cash and promissory notes to erect a building for the school on land donated by Thomas and Walter Monteith. Rev. William Monteith became the first president of Albany College and 86 students enrolled in 1869. Four women comprised the first graduating class in 1873.

In 1905, the college purchased 46 acres on the edge of town for a new campus. Beset by the Great Depression, in 1934 the trustees authorized class offerings in the Portland area. The last class graduated from the Albany campus in 1938. The campus was sold to the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

In 1941, Albany College became Lewis & Clark College and moved to the campus on Southwest Palatine Road, Portland. Northwestern School of Law merged with Lewis & Clark in 1965.

Today, Lewis & Clark College is the state's largest private college with 1,600 undergraduates and over 1,100 graduate students in law, education, counseling psychology, and other programs. The college draws students from every state in the U.S. and many foreign countries. Albany Quad on the Lewis & Clark College Campus in Portland The college affirms its history and its presence in Albany. Albany Hall, a quadrangle of buildings on the campus, speaks to that heritage. The college also has the original foundation cornerstone of the Albany Collegiate Institute, the brass keys to the building's doors, the original cash box, and many other historical objects, documents, and photographs related to its origins in Albany.