Southern Methodist College is located in the city of Orangeburg, SC. The fifty-acre campus occupies the lands and residence of the former Frederick A. Adden estate, given to the Southern Methodist Church in 1961 by the late Mrs. Adden for the purpose of developing the College on the site.

The Southern Methodist Church, formed in Columbia, SC, on January 14, 1939, as the continuing body of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, seventeen years later established the Southern Methodist College on January 26, 1956, temporarily in Greenville, moving in 1958 to Aiken and again to Orangeburg in 1961.

Recognizing the great need for a strong Christian education in a time of spiritual crisis, the church leaders sought to establish the College as a center of highest academic standards and Christian culture where men and women would receive education and training to go forth as Christian leaders rendering service throughout the world for the glory of God.