Friends University

Friends University is a private non-denominational Christian university in Wichita, Kansas. Friends was founded in 1898. The main building was originally built in 1886 for Garfield University, but was donated in 1898 to the Religious Society of Friends by James Davis, a St. Louis business man. In the 1930s the leadership of the school was turned over to an independent Board of Trustees, with some representation of the Mid-America Yearly Meeting of Friends on the board. It operates today with "an amicable but independent relationship with the evangelical branch of the Society of Friends."
The building now known as the Davis Administration Building and formerly as University Hall was completed in September 1887 to house Garfield University. Garfield was an effort by the Christian Churches of Kansas led by Dr. W.B. Hendryx to build a Christian college in the Wichita area. Hendryx wanted to name the college after his good friend, President James Garfield. At the time, it occupied the largest single building used for educational purposes west of the Mississippi river. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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