Celebrating 185 Years of Bridgewater

Bridgewater State University traces its roots to 1840, when education reformer Horace Mann helped establish the Bridgewater State Normal School to professionalize teacher preparation. The first two normal schools — Lexington (now Framingham) and Barre (now Westfield) — opened in 1839. As the third normal school in Massachusetts, Bridgewater quickly became a model for rigorous, standardized training that strengthened public education across the Commonwealth. Bridgewater is also the oldest of the normal schools still in operation at its original site.

Over the 20th century, the institution evolved with the needs of the state — becoming Bridgewater State Teachers College (1932), Bridgewater State College (1960), and, in 2010, Bridgewater State University — while sustaining its leadership in educator preparation and a service-first ethos captured in the longstanding motto, “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

Today, BSU enrolls roughly 10,000 students in more than 100 academic programs across six colleges. Guided by a mission devoted to the lifelong success of all students and to advancing the public good, the university pairs extraordinary teaching with research, internships, and community engagement that prepare graduates to lead in the region and beyond.

Learn more about the history of Bridgewater State in Not to be Ministered Unto, But to Minister: Bridgewater State University, 1840-2010 by Thomas R. Turner.