The school was the second college in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains and the first in Indiana to provide education to students of different colors.

[citation needed] The restored three-story stone chapel and classroom building was constructed between 1853 and 1856 and presently serves as a local history museum.

Historic Madison, a Jefferson County preservation organization, received the school as a gift in 1973 and sold it to its present owners in 1990.

Reverend Thomas Craven, a visiting Baptist minister who studied at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is credited with proposing the idea for the school.

Following his advice, several members of Neil's Creek Abolitionist Baptist Church established the Eleutherian Institute, its initial name, at Lancaster, Indiana, in 1848.

[5] From the 1830s to the 1860s the unincorporated community of Lancaster, about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Madison in Jefferson County, Indiana, was known for its anti-slavery sentiment.

[4][6] Neil's Creek was located about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Lancaster, a major stop for fugitive slaves along the Underground Railroad route as they traveled north from Madison on the Ohio River to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Several abolitionist families in the area, including some members of the school's board of trustees, were active participants in the Underground Railroad.

[7][8][9] The community's abolitionist church and anti-slavery sentiments also made Lancaster a good place to establish an integrated school.

[6][8] Eleutherian Institute admitted students without regard to ethnicity or gender, including freed and fugitive slaves.

[8] Its first classes began offering secondary school instruction on November 27, 1848, with fifteen students gathering in an old meetinghouse near Lancaster.

In addition to donating land, Reverend Thomas Craven also solicited funds to support the school and recruited students to increase its enrollment.

[16] During the Civil War, some of the school's former students who enlisted in the 6th Indiana Infantry Regiment participated in the military training held on the Eleutherian College's grounds.

Subsequent owners were unsuccessful in efforts to have the Indiana Department of Conservation convert the property to a state park.

[3][14] Reverend Thomas Craven donated the land for the school, which eventually included two new buildings erected on the College Hill property in the 1850s.

The three-story building has a rectangular plan that includes a square bell tower (belfry) centered above a gable-fronted main entrance.

The building's windowsills, lintels, and corner quoins are finished limestone, which contrasts to the rough-hewn stone walls.

[22] The north (front) facade of the building has three bays wide with two wooden doors flanking a single, ground-floor window.