John Peter Baden gave Winfield a college
The Lutheran businessman's $50,000 gift founded St. John's College, whose buildings are now Baden Square.
By Garrett Pruitt
In the early 1890s, John Peter Baden, a wealthy Lutheran businessman in Winfield, gave $50,000 to start a college.
St. John’s College opened in September 1893 with five faculty members, meeting in temporary space while its first building went up on the east side of town. That building, a two-story stone hall 60 by 100 feet, was finished on March 1, 1894. For its first 20 years it held everything: classrooms, offices, dormitory rooms and the dining hall. It is now called Baden Hall.
The college, run by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, closed in 1986 after more than 9,000 students had gone through it. The campus is now Baden Square, used by the city, and named for him.