Park University is a private, non-profit university in Parkville, Missouri (Platte County), on a wooded bluff campus above the Missouri River in the Northland. Founded in 1875 as Park College for Training Christian Workers, it built its early reputation on a self-help work program under which students earned their tuition and board with campus labor — including quarrying the limestone and raising the buildings they studied in. It became Park University on January 1, 2000, and today operates a nationally distributed network of campus centers, many on or near United States military installations.

History

Founding (1875)

Park College for Training Christian Workers opened on May 12, 1875 with 17 students — remembered institutionally as the “Original 17” — founded by John A. McAfee, George S. Park, and Rev. Elisha B. Sherwood.1 Park, the townsite promoter for whom Parkville is named, donated the land and his stone hotel on the bluff above the river as the first building.2 The name was shortened to Park College in 1879.1

McAfee led the college until his death in 1890; his son Lowell M. McAfee served as the second president until 1913.2 The institution’s motto, Fides et Labor (“faith and work”), states the founding premise directly.3

The work program

The founding arrangement — sometimes called the “Parkville Experiment” — offered students free tuition and board in exchange for working up to half a day in the college’s farm, electrical shop, or printing plant.2 Under the terms agreed with George S. Park, the grounds were to revert to him if the experiment failed within five years.2 The system rested on McAfee’s advocacy of self-help education: students financing their schooling with their own labor, which was itself treated as instruction.2

The specific label “Family Plan” for this arrangement is widely repeated locally but is not used in the sources retrieved for this page.

Mackay Hall and the student-built campus

Mackay Hall, the campus landmark, was built of limestone mined on the grounds and raised with student labor.2 Ground was broken in 1886; construction was interrupted by the 1889 death of the building’s namesake, banker Duncan Mackay, and by funding shortfalls, and the building was not completed until 1893.12 It is a three-story structure roughly 137 by 84 feet in rock-faced limestone, mixing Richardsonian Romanesque, High Victorian Gothic, and Chateauesque elements under a stage-built clock tower and spire; the recorded builder is James Oliver Hogg with architect Patrick Breen.4

Mackay Hall (listed as the Mackay Building) was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 6, 1979 (reference number 79001389).4

Historic designation on campus

There is no Park College or Park University campus historic district on the National Register. Mackay Hall is listed individually, as was the Charles Smith Scott Memorial Observatory — an 1896 ashlar-limestone observatory on the campus, listed in 1992, which burned in 1999 and was razed.56 Of the four National Register listings in Parkville, only these two are campus buildings.5

The underground campus

The quarries that supplied the campus stone became mined-out limestone rooms beneath the bluff, and the university began developing them in 1981.7 The complex has two branches: an academic underground and leased commercial space. The Mabee Learning Center occupies part of the mine, housing a library, bookstore, computer lab, classrooms, a gallery, offices, and a health clinic; it was dedicated in 1989.18 Reported floor areas vary by source and by whether commercial space is counted — figures from roughly 385,000 square feet to more than one million have been published.78 Treat any single number as approximate.

Campus centers and the military network

Park established its Military Resident Center System in 1973; the first graduating class from a military campus was at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, in 1974.1 The university began offering online courses in 1996.2 Park’s own site described 19 U.S. locations as of retrieval in August 2026; Wikipedia’s higher count of 41 satellite campuses across 22 states reflects a different (and likely older) accounting.32 The network has contracted substantially from its peak; a dated institutional count is needed.

Campus and Parkville

The flagship Parkville campus covers roughly 645 wooded acres on and behind the river bluff, immediately above the town’s small downtown.3 Its physical presence — the clock tower visible from the river road, the mines beneath it, the stone quarried in place — makes it the defining structure of parkville rather than merely an institution located there.

Enrollment

Wikipedia reports total enrollment of 4,949 students (3,995 undergraduate, 954 postgraduate) as of fall 2025.2 Park’s own consumer-information reporting publishes only first-time, full-time bachelor’s cohort headcounts (268 for 2025), not a total headcount.9 A total enrollment figure from a dated institutional or IPEDS source should replace the Wikipedia number.

Sources

See also

Footnotes

  1. Park University — “150 Years of Historical Highlights.” — asserts: founding by George S. Park, John A. McAfee and Rev. Elisha B. Sherwood; “Original 17” beginning classes May 12, 1875; name shortened to Park College in 1879; Mackay Hall groundbreaking 1886, Duncan Mackay’s 1889 death, completion 1893; Military Resident Center System established 1973 and first military-campus graduating class at Scott AFB 1974; name change to Park University January 1, 2000; Mabee Learning Center/Academic Underground dedicated 1989. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Wikipedia — “Park University.” — asserts: 1875 founding by McAfee on land donated by Park, first building Park’s stone hotel on the bluff; free tuition and board for up to half a day of work in farm, electrical shop or printing plant; five-year reversion clause of the “Parkville Experiment”; McAfee presidency to 1890 and Lowell M. McAfee to 1913; Mackay Hall built of limestone mined on the grounds by student labor; online courses from 1996; 41 satellite campuses in 22 states; fall 2025 enrollment 4,949 (3,995 undergraduate, 954 postgraduate). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. Park University — About — asserts: private nonprofit four-year liberal arts institution since 1875; motto fides et labor; 645-acre wooded flagship campus; 19 U.S. locations (retrieved 2026-08-13). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Wikipedia — “Mackay Building.” — asserts: Mackay Building/Mackay Hall on the Park University campus, Parkville, Platte County; built 1886 by James Oliver Hogg with architect Patrick Breen; three stories, approx. 137 by 84 feet, rock-faced limestone, Richardsonian Romanesque / High Victorian Gothic / Chateauesque, clock tower with tall spire; NRHP listed April 6, 1979, reference 79001389. ↩ ↩2

  5. Wikipedia — “National Register of Historic Places listings in Platte County, Missouri.” — asserts: four Parkville listings (Benjamin Banneker School 1995, Mackay Building 1979, Charles Smith Scott Memorial Observatory 1992, Washington Chapel C.M.E. Church 1992); only the Mackay Building is identified with Park College; no campus historic district is listed. ↩ ↩2

  6. Wikipedia — “Charles Smith Scott Memorial Observatory.” — asserts: also known as Park College Observatory, on the Park University campus; built 1896; variation of the “T”-plan observatory type in ashlar limestone; NRHP listed 1992; burned 1999 and razed. (The Missouri State Parks NRHP nomination PDF for this property, mostateparks.com, is a scanned image file and could not be read by automated fetch.) ↩

  7. KCUR — “Kansas City underground: How to explore the hidden locations beneath our streets,” July 2, 2022 — asserts: the Parkville Commercial Underground beneath Park University was a limestone mine; the space stretches more than one million square feet and houses both businesses and part of the university. ↩ ↩2

  8. KCUR — “Want to explore Parkville? Start with this beginner’s guide to the city,” July 1, 2023 — asserts: historic campus buildings including Mackay Hall were built by students with limestone quarried from nearby hills, and those quarries are now caves used academically and commercially; the Mabee Learning Center inside the mine holds a library, bookstore, computer lab, classrooms, gallery, offices and a health clinic; digging began in 1981; roughly 250,000 sq ft commercial plus a university-occupied section, with more than 385,000 sq ft of underground commercial space cited. ↩ ↩2

  9. Park University — Consumer Information, Student Outcomes — asserts: first-time, full-time bachelor’s degree-seeking headcounts by year, 2016–2025 (268 in 2025); no total institutional headcount published on the page. ↩

See also

Categories
  • Entity
  • Building
  • Cultural Institution
  • Parkville

On the record — ks.city/wiki/buildings/park-university · last revised 2026-08-13