In early 1884, a group of businessmen in Bowling Green, Kentucky formed a committee to establish a girls' school for local and boarding students.

[1] Benjamin F. Cabell was elected president of the proposed school; he had taught at the Cedar Bluff College in Kentucky until that institution was destroyed by fire.

[2] The school committee purchased a 4-acre tract known as Vinegar Hill on the southern edge of Bowling Green in March 1889.

[1][3] Cabell and the committee sold subscriptions to the local community for $25 a share to fund a "state of the art" building.

[1] In 1901, Cabell caught local boys helping five students exit the second floor via a ladder for a late-night date.

[5][6] Western Kentucky State Normal School bought the buildings, properties, and adjacent 177 acres of Potter College in 1909 for $82,500.

[1] Potter College was located at the summit of Vinegar Hill (also called Copley Knob), 125 feet (38 m) above downtown Bowling Green.

[1][2] The building had modern conveniences; it was heated by steam, illuminated by gas light, and its nine bathrooms had hot and cold running water.

[4][1] Potter College operated as a finishing school for upper-class girls but also provided a liberal arts education that prepared its students for work as artists, businesswomen, nurses, social reformers, teachers, and writers.

[2] The latter required "satisfactory completion" of coursework in elocution, English, French, German, Latin, math, music, and science.

[2] Students studied a mix of classical and more recent writings, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Cicero, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Shakespeare, and Virgil.