From 1948 until its closing in 1987, the college was an accredited four-year co-educational liberal arts institution.

When the college was dedicated in September 1912, then United States President William Howard Taft, gave a speech.

Due to declining attendance, the school was forced to shut down in 1987 as it could no longer afford to function.

Following the college's closure, the campus was sold in 1990 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which in 1992, opened State Correctional Institution (SCI) – Cambridge Springs, a minimum-security women's prison, at the site.

[4] Alliance College's library housed the largest Polish collection (35,000 cataloged and 15,000 uncataloged volumes) in North America.