The result of a 1960 education commission, Mount Vernon Nazarene was first chartered as the Zone A College of the Church of the Nazarene in 1964 by the church's General Assembly. A site in the town of Mount Vernon was chosen in 1966 for its proximity to a concentrated Nazarene population, and Mount Vernon Nazarene College (MVNC) opened in 1968 on the old Lakeholm Farm property that had belonged to The Ohio State University. The Lakeholm Farm was the former home of Columbus Delano, U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Ulysses S. Grant. Three buildings (Manor, Ice House, and Barn) original to Lakeholm Farm, are still in operation on the campus today. Originally a two-year junior college, MVNU became a four-year school in 1973, was accredited for two-year degrees in 1972 and four-year degrees in 1974, and graduate degrees in Christian ministry were added in 1991. It was renamed Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU) in 2002. The town of Mount Vernon was just one of many sites proposed for the college, but it raised $209,000 USD to purchase a 209-acre portion of the Lakeholm Farm before the Church of the Nazarene bought it from The Ohio State University, which owned the property. The colonial-style buildings were designed to resemble Williamsburg, Virginia. Nine acres were added by Mary Starr in 1970, and the college acquired a neighboring 128-acre (0.52 km2) farm in 1999. MVNU is a co-educational liberal arts university with an evangelical Christian foundation and mission. It is part of the Church of the Nazarene's East Central District and much of its educational philosophy is based on the Wesleyan-Arminian holiness tradition. The university motto is: "To Seek to Learn is to Seek to Serve.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University exists to shape lives through educating the whole person and cultivating Christ-likeness for lifelong learning and service.

Rural