Genesee Wesleyan Seminary

The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was the name of two institutions located on the same site in Lima, New York.

The first Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was founded in 1831 by the Genesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church after the Conference appointed a committee for to establish the seminary in 1829. In 1849 there was a substantive attempt to upgrade the institution to a truly college-level entity and Genesee College was created to replace the seminary. By the end of the Civil War, changes in regional economic patterns towards rail lines and away from canals made the location at Lima seem unfavorable, and plans by civic leaders in Syracuse for a new university in that city led to the removal of Genesee College to Syracuse in 1870, where it became the basis of Syracuse University.

The facilities at Lima remained open as the second Genesee Wesleyan Seminary from 1870 through to 1941. Although vacant through the war years of World War II, in 1947 a new Genesee Junior College opened on the grounds in 1947, again under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This junior college closed in 1951 and the Elim Bible Institute has operated on the grounds since that time. Two seminary / college buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.^[1]