In 1869 (nice), the Church of the United Brethren in Christ voted together for the funding and building of a seminary in Dayton, Ohio. With the denomination’s publishing house already located in the area, Milton Wright, who later became the school’s chairman, felt it was a perfect location. On October 11, 1871, the school was officially opened under the name of the Union Biblical Seminary. Originally, everything had been run out of rented rooms at the Home Street United Brethren in Christ Church, until the seminary was incorporated in November 1873.

In 1873, women were to begin being admitted into the seminary. At this time, male students had already spent some time here, and were almost ready to graduate. Almost as soon as women were admitted, the first male students graduated in 1874. The first women graduates would not be seen until 1883. 

At the cost of $12,000, the first building for the seminary was constructed. The building was a three-story brick building, which stood on five acres of land at First Street and Euclid Avenue. The building contained a chapel, library, office, four recitation rooms, and 16 furnished dormitories. The land upon which it was built was land donated by the first General Agent of the seminary, John Kemp. 

The Union Biblical Seminary had promised that anyone to contribute $50,000 to the institution would have the institution named after them. In 1906, John and Mary Bonebrake cleverly worked out a way to make this happen. The couple owned 3,840 acres of farmland in Kansas, which was donated to the seminary. In 1908, the land was appraised at $86,400 and sold. All proceeds were donated to the school, and thus the seminary was officially renamed the Bonebrake Seminary on January 20, 1909.

Enrollment continued to grow quickly at the seminary, which eventually led to the need for more land to expand. Approximately 274 acres of land was acquired about 1.5 miles from the single existing building. The seminary had only made use of about 35 acres, while the rest were sold to real estate investors planning a residential neighborhood. This neighborhood later became known as the Dayton View Triangle. 

The Olmsted Brothers of Boston were hired to layout the architectural design for a new campus. Their goal for the design was a park-like campus with Gothic Revival style buildings constructed around it. Funding from Bonebrake, alongside a generous contribution from John Henry Patterson, founder of the National Cash Register Company, made it possible to complete construction of the campus.

On March 27, 1920, construction would begin on the first of three buildings. Over the next few years, work on all three of the buildings continued. The campus was completed in 1923. The three buildings constructed included an administration building, named in honor of the Bonebrakes, a dormitory named for Reverend Fout, and a heating plant. With a new campus, and little use for the former seminary building, they decided to sell it to the Evangelical School of Theology in the fall of 1929.

More often than some might think, secret operations might be happening right around the corner. In 1943, the United States government was doing exactly that, using Bonebrake as a top-secret testing site for the Dayton Project. This project was just one small piece to the Manhattan Project. At Bonebrake, the government conducted research for creation of the atomic bomb. It was here at Bonebrake that they produced polonium that the US would later use in the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.  

In the 1950s, the campus would see a bit of a renovation to bring it into modern times. Of the first things to be introduced was a library, which was constructed between 1951-1952. Five years later, a new dormitory was added, named after Rev. Dr. Walter Roberts. Additions didn’t stop here. Four years later, a worship center complete with two seminary rooms, a prayer chapel, sanctuary, offices and a classroom was built.

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ merged with the Evangelical Church. This merger came on November 16, 1946, and formed the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Eight years later in 1954, another merger would happen when the Bonebrake Seminary merged with the Evangelical School of Theology, forming the United Theological Seminary. One final merger came in 1968, when the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church denominations merged to become the United Methodist Church and United Theological Seminary.

From this point, the seminary would see even further growth in 1973 with the addition of a communications center, complete with a television production studio along with other resources to create and broadcast religious programming. Four years later in 1977, the Harriet L. Miller Women’s Center was built, as they aimed to provide support for theologians and those who supported feminist theology, womanist theology, and mujerista theology.In 2004, plans were initiated to begin moving the seminary to a new location, and not long after on February 18, 2005, they had acquired property for a new suburban campus located in Trotwood. The property they had obtained was previously owned by the Jewish Federation of Dayton. The campus stretched across 80 acres, and included a 78,000-square-foot building. By October 10, the seminary had moved to their new campus, and the former buildings and campus were sold to Omega Baptist Church. The church purchased the property for $1.35 million on June 3. Their plans were to build a new worship center, along with an educational facility.

Omega’s building plans were approved by the Dayton city commission in October of 2012. Omega’s plans were to first construct the worship center, which would cost approximately $5.5 million, and then demolish the former library, Bonebrake Hall and Fout Hall. They expected thie, along with the construction of a new 32,555 square-foot multi-purpose center to take nearly 15 years to complete. By 2014 the library and Bonebrake Hall were demolished.

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