Belmont University

Belmont University is a private Christian university located at 1900 Belmont Boulevard in Nashville, Tennessee, occupying a 93-acre urban campus approximately two miles southwest of downtown. Descended from Belmont Women's College, founded in 1890 by schoolteachers Ida Hood and Susan Heron, the institution was incorporated in 1951 as Belmont College. It became Belmont University in 1991. The largest Christian university in Tennessee, Belmont University is a private coeducational liberal arts institution and the state's second largest private university. As of 2025, Belmont reports its enrollment as "nearly 9,000 students from every state and more than 30 countries." The university is particularly noted for its programs in music business and the health sciences, and has served as a national stage for civic life, hosting U.S. presidential debates in both 2008 and 2020.

History and Founding

Belmont College for Young Women was founded by Ida Hood and Susan Heron, two teachers from Pennsylvania. They purchased the old Belle Monte estate in 1889 with the dream of creating a premier women's college in Nashville, Tennessee. Classes first met on September 4, 1890, with 90 students attending, and the school grew steadily. Ninety students enrolled the first year, paying $60 in tuition. The innovative curriculum included 10 different subject fields — English, mathematics, natural science, philosophy, elocution, physical culture, art, music, as well as modern and ancient languages.

Belmont College was a rigorous school that strove to instill in its all-female student body good morals. It also had an ambitious curriculum that mirrored many programs at that time that were geared towards men. This was more than a finishing school; the school boasted prominent faculty and programs meant to mold the minds of its students. Graduates held the equivalent of a junior-college diploma and often went on to attend prominent four-year colleges like Vassar, Smith, and Bryn Mawr.

Upon the retirement of Heron and Hood, Belmont Women's College merged with Ward Seminary in 1913 and was known as Ward–Belmont College, which included both a junior college and college-prep school for women. The merger combined Belmont's beautiful campus with Ward's administrative expertise, creating an institution that included a junior college, a preparatory school, primary school, and a music conservatory. Ward-Belmont was the first junior college in the South to receive full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

Facing financial challenges, Ward-Belmont's board explored new funding options, ultimately leading to the Tennessee Baptist Convention's purchase of the property in February 1951. Ward-Belmont finished the 1950-1951 school year, and Belmont College opened in the fall of 1951 as a four-year, co-ed institution. In 1959, Herbert Gabhart succeeded White and Belmont was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Enrollment rose from 365 students to 2,000, and the college launched a music business program. Dr. William Troutt, at 32, was the youngest college president in the country when he succeeded Dr. Gabhart. He was also the first Belmont College president since the merger with the Tennessee Baptist Convention not to be part of the clergy. During Dr. Troutt's time as President, Belmont established its first graduate program, the master's in business administration at the Massey School of Business. In 1991, it changed its name to Belmont University.

The university cut official ties with the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 2007, but still calls itself a "Christ-centered, student-focused community."

Campus and Historic Grounds

Belmont University sits on 75 historic acres two miles southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee. In the mid-1800s, the land the university now occupies was known as Belle Monte, the Victorian home of one of Tennessee's wealthiest couples, Joseph and Adelicia Acklen. The property's antebellum heritage is still visible across campus today.

The Belmont Mansion is owned by Belmont University but maintained by the Belmont Mansion Association, a non-profit group. The mansion is open for tours and features Victorian art and furnishings. The water tower, gardens, with surviving gazebos and outdoor statuary from the Acklen era, are part of the college campus. Two hundred yards south of the Belmont Mansion stands the historic Bell Tower, which was used as a water tower on the Acklens' original estate and as a signal tower during the Civil War. The current Bell Tower includes a total of 42 bells weighing more than three tons and is one of only five carillons in the state of Tennessee. The Bell Tower is now captured in Belmont University's logo and honored as the centerpiece of campus.

Belmont is located in an urban setting near Nashville's Midtown district, with the campus sandwiched by the Hillsboro-West End, Music Row, Edgehill, and Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhoods. Within a reasonable walk of the university are commercial areas 12South and Hillsboro Village.

The hallmark buildings lining Wedgewood Avenue provide a visual sense of the progress of the university. Music Row leads directly to the school's front door at Freeman Hall, which is flanked by two other historic buildings — Fidelity, built during the Ward-Belmont era, and Barbara Massey Hall, home of elegant dining halls. Freeman Hall connects to The Jack C. Massey Business Center. The Massey Center (1990) and Freeman Hall (1890) exhibit an architectural and ideological blend of the preservation of the past and state-of-the-art construction for the future.

Belmont was the first university in Tennessee to host a U.S. presidential debate, doing so in 2008 and again in 2020, positioning the campus as a national stage for civic engagement and bringing worldwide attention to the University.

Academics and Programs

Belmont is a coeducational university located in a large city in an urban setting and is primarily a residential campus. It offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. With more than 130 areas of undergraduate study, 35 master's programs and seven doctoral degrees, the university is committed to providing an education — both inside and outside the classroom. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 7,167 (fall 2024), its setting is urban, and the campus size is 93 acres. The student-faculty ratio at Belmont University is 12:1, and it utilizes a semester-based academic calendar.

In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, Belmont University is ranked No. 213 in National Universities. It is also ranked No. 39 in Best Undergraduate Teaching by U.S. News & World Report. Named one of the most innovative colleges nationally for more than 15 years, Belmont is committed to helping learners of all ages lead extraordinary lives of purpose, character, and wisdom.

One of Belmont's flagship offerings is its entertainment and music business program. The Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business was founded in 2003 and now includes all aspects of the field that students need a foundation in for professional success. Belmont is proud to be the only music business degree program in the world with AACSB International accreditation. This is why Billboard regularly ranks Belmont's music business degree among the "Top Music Business Schools" in the world. Being one block from Nashville's famous Music Row gives students easy access to today's industry leaders through alumni and strong connections. One of the hallmarks of the program is its internship program, which sends hundreds of students annually out into the Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles music industries to intern for record labels, management companies, publishing companies, booking agencies, publicists, recording studios, law firms, and other businesses.

In June 2006, Belmont opened the $18 million Gordon E. Inman Center that houses the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences and Nursing. The building has three stories of classroom space that contain learning labs equipped with Sim Man mannequins that respond to the actions of the nursing students. There are classrooms for adult and pediatric occupational therapy, maternity and neonatal care, an orthopedics lab, and many classrooms of various sizes.

Notable alumni of the music programs include Brad Paisley, Trisha Yearwood, songwriter and publisher Ashley Gorley, Ben Vaughn of Warner/Chappell, and Cindy Mabe of Universal Music Group.

Presidential Debates

Belmont University has earned a distinctive place in American political history by hosting presidential debates twice in twelve years. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that Belmont University in Nashville would host the Town Hall Presidential Debate on October 7, 2008. Belmont was one of 16 sites nationwide under consideration to host one of three presidential, or one vice presidential, debates. Tennessee had been home to three former United States Presidents — Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk — but this was the first time a presidential debate had been held in Tennessee.

According to Nielsen Media Ratings, more than 63.2 million homes nationwide tuned in to view the Town Hall Presidential Debate held on October 7, 2008, the largest television audience of the three presidential debates held that fall. The debate between future President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. John McCain served as a sort of coming-out party for Belmont. The small, private university with ties to the Baptist church was growing and evolving.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that Belmont University — home of the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate — would again host a presidential debate on Thursday, October 22, 2020. This was the third and final presidential debate of the 2020 campaign season. Belmont was chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan and non-profit group, from five other cities including Hartford, Omaha, Ann Arbor, South Bend, and Salt Lake City. The 2020 debate drew 63 million viewers across the 15 networks that carried the debate, according to Nielsen.

Athletics

Belmont is a member of NCAA Division I and is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in all of Belmont's sports. On September 28, 2021, Belmont announced that it would become a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, beginning in the Fall of 2022. In the mid-1990s, Belmont changed its nickname to the "Bruins," replacing the earlier mascot of Rebels due to its association with the Confederacy.

Rose Park — Metro Nashville Parks owned property in partnership with Belmont University — hosts NCAA Division I baseball, soccer, softball, and track. Belmont Softball won the 2025 MVC Championship with a 6–2 win over Southern Illinois, earning the program's first-ever NCAA tournament bid.

The Curb Event Center on campus serves as the home for Belmont's basketball and volleyball programs and has doubled as a major events venue. The 2020 Presidential Debate at Belmont University was held in the Curb Event Center, home of the NCAA Division I Belmont Bruins basketball and volleyball teams. In 2011, Belmont student-athletes won the Atlantic Sun Conference Academic Trophy for the eighth time in ten years, with 76.32 percent of the student-athletes achieving at least a 3.0 grade-point average.