In 1889, an association of merchants and landowners from the Van Alstyne area established Columbia College to provide quality education. The school served all grades through college level, emphasizing vocational training as well as the arts and sciences, and was housed in a three-story frame structure on this four-acre fenced site. There were 40 students in the first class, and enrollment increased to 578 by the 1893-1894 school year. Students from a large section of North Texas attended this coeducational institution. Howell Lake Piner, born in Kentucky and reared in Honey Grove, Texas, served as the first president from 1890 to 1895. Educated at Vanderbilt University, he came to Columbia after selling his interest in Grayson College in Whitewright, Texas, and skillfully directed the institution's development. As the area grew, Van Alstyne residents recognized the need for a community high school, and Columbia College became part of the Van Alstyne Public School System in 1906. The college building continued to serve the schools until it was destroyed by fire in 1915.