John J. Dickey came to the small town of Jackson in November 1882 in an effort to convince the community to start a high school.
He aimed to educate young men so that they could attend Kentucky colleges in (Lexington, Winchester, Danville, Georgetown etc.
The school was located in the basement of the county courthouse, with Dickey serving as principal and Hurst his assistant.
He was the son of William E. Dodge, a Member of Congress for New York City, a millionaire and philanthropist.
This ensured a committee to secure a site for the building and article of incorporation for the continuity of the school.
It was to be made of brick, with two stories, have a chapel, a bell tower, a basement, and multiple classrooms.
The school's name was changed to Jackson Collegiate Institution, and it encompassed all grades from primary to higher education.
In October 1906, control of S. P. Lees Collegiate Institute was passed to the Southern Synod of Kentucky (Presbyterian Church), which had been responsible for Central University before the consolidation.
Around this time (by 1911) the board of trustees sold a piece of property on Highland Avenue to the Jackson Grade Common School.
By doing so, it would have to meet the standards of the accreditation of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to be declared a "junior college" i.e. biology labs, cafeteria, dormitory space, curriculum, library, extracurricular activities, efficient faculty (with the degrees standard to teach), and so on.
They used the neighboring Jackson City School's Gymnasium (now their old gym) as their home court and adopted a mascot, the Bearcats (changed to Generals around the 1950s).
Around the same time, Lees Junior College was in the news as they started their inaugural football season.
The chairman of the board of trustees asked Van Meter to keep the college open until February 1, 1929, when it was assumed it would be shut down, because of financial and accreditation problems.
Yet in less than a year Van Meter had achieved a fully accredited faculty, clean facilities, cemented sidewalks and updated scientific equipment for the school.
Van Meter devised an early method of student loans with one of the local banks.
Robert Landolt (president 1948–58) oversaw the building of Van Meter Gymnasium and the growth of men's basketball.
A starring member of the 1954-55 basketball team, Kenneth Paul Mink, later achieved international fame when he became a member of the Roane State College team, Harriman, Tn., at age73, becoming the world's oldest college basketball player (2008-09).
The administrations of J. Phil Smith (1958–1959) and Lawrence H. Hollander (1959–1960) did not last long, but continued the growth and prosperity of Lees Junior College.
Eslinger oversaw many changes to the campus, including the renovation of Old Lees and the removal of the belltower.
In Nancy Stamper Begley's Had It Not Been for Lees, she talks about plans for a new Performing Arts Student Center, with building to begin in the 1983–84 school year.
[9] The board of trustees asked Charles Derrickson (a former alumnus and faculty member of Morehead State University) to help fix the situation after William Bradshaw resigned to move to another institution in 1992.
Derrickson found that it was financially difficult to keep the college going and felt that the only way to not have the doors closed would be to have an outside institution take over.
Eventually, the University of Kentucky were interested as they had tried to acquire Sue Bennett College, but this had fallen through due to a disagreement with SBC's board.
So, in December 1995, President Derrickson and the board of trustees signed the land and the facilities over to the University of Kentucky.
This name only stuck for a year when the KCTCS was formed by Kentucky Legislature by passing the Postsecondary Improvement Act of 1997.
This meant that all community colleges became their own independent system (away from their universities) and added technical campuses as well.