List of presidents of Centre College

It was founded by leaders of the Presbyterian Church, an affiliation it still loosely maintains, and was formally chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly on January 21, 1819.

[5] The close relationship with the church is evident in Centre's history, as Spragens, the school's seventeenth president, was the first who was not a member of the clergy; even then, he was a Presbyterian elder from age 29.

[5] Fourteen of the school's first sixteen presidents were Presbyterian ministers (excepting only Ormond Beatty and Charles J. Turck),[6][7] though none since Spragens have been.

[19][20] Originally built in 1853, the Italianate-style home was first owned by William Moore, a Danville farmer, and later by George Welsh, a merchant and member of Centre's board of trustees.

[19] When the college purchased the house using funds from a donation given by Henry Nelson Craik, an 1890 Centre graduate, the building was renamed for him.