The first institution of higher learning for blacks during the period of segregation, established in 1948 by the Churches of Christ, was Southwestern Christian College. Located in Terrell, Texas, it opened in the fall of that year with forty-five students. The college began in Fort Worth under the name Southern Bible Institute. It moved into buildings that once housed Texas Military College and changed its name to Southwestern Christian College. Though founded to educate blacks, it has maintained an open-door policy to students regardless of race. The institution became a four-year college in the 1970s. The campus contains the first dwelling erected in Terrell—an octagonal-shaped house built by a man named Terrell. It exists as one of the twenty surviving Round Houses in the country.