Franconia College

Franconia College was a small experimental liberal arts college in Franconia, New Hampshire, United States. It opened in 1963 in Dow Academy and the site of the Forest Hills Hotel on Agassiz Road, and closed in 1978, after years of declining enrollment and increasing financial difficulties. A small, eclectic faculty provided a diverse education. Areas of studies included the fine arts, architecture, performing arts, languages, law, and business. History Franconia College opened in the former Dow Academy buildings as a two-year college in 1963 with nine founding staff members; the school began granting four-year degrees in 1965. The school was accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. 1960s The school first gained national attention in 1968 when William Loeb, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, vilified the students for behavior that included unmarried persons of the opposite sex sleeping together. The headline "Bare Debauchery at Franconia College: Sex, Liquor, Drugs Rampant on Campus" made the front page of the newspaper the same day a larger, main headline announced the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.