Blinn was founded in 1883 as
Mission Institute by local minister
Carl Urbantke with an original class of three
ministerial students. It was affiliated with the Southern German Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and became
coeducational in 1888. In 1889, the institute's name was changed to
Blinn Memorial College in honor of the Reverend Christian Blinn, who had donated a considerable sum of money to make the school possible. Blinn was a wealthy minister and immigrant from
Germany, who funded several German Methodist efforts, including the building of the
Blinn Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. In 1927, the board of trustees, under leadership of President Philip Deschner, organized a
junior college. In 1930, Blinn merged with
Southwestern University of
Georgetown. In 1934, a new charter was procured by the citizens of Brenham, and a private, nonsectarian junior college was organized as Blinn College, with nine regents as the board of control. In February 1937, all connections with Southwestern University and the Methodist denominations were severed. On June 8, 1937, voters in
Washington County levied a
property tax for the creation of a public junior college district. Blinn thus became the first county-owned junior college district in Texas. The Bryan campus was established in 1970, and by the early 1980s, a third campus opened in
College Station. In 1997, the Villa Maria Road campus opened in Bryan, consolidating the programs that were located in the Townshire Shopping Center in Bryan and the Woodstone Center in College Station. The third
Brazos County site, located in the former Bryan post office, continues to house the dental hygiene, radiologic technology, and workforce education programs. The original three buildings on the Bryan campuses were expanded to six, and in 2002, the former Schulman Theater was purchased and converted to classroom space, known as the College Park Campus (CPC). The Schulenburg campus opened in 1997 and the Sealy campus opened in 2005. In 2015, Blinn announced that it would cancel expansion plans at the Villa Maria campus and open new facilities at the Texas A&M RELLIS Campus, instead. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Blinn College educational building took place on March 31, 2017. In 2022, Blinn opened a new $32 million administration building at RELLIS, incorporating 19 new classrooms in addition to offices for student enrollment. In 2023, Blinn opened the Waller campus in the former Waller High School. ==Service area==