Gordon College was founded in 1889 under the name Boston Missionary Training School, in the basement of Clarendon Street Church. The school is named for its founder, the Rev. Dr. Adoniram Judson (A. J.) Gordon, pastor of the church and prominent clergyman of the late 1800s. Within 30 years, Gordon grew well beyond the facilities of its founding church as well as the facilities it used at the Newton Theological Institute, Newton, Mass. The College then moved to the Fenway portion of Boston, into a facility that was financed through a very generous gift given by Martha Frost.