Lamson College is a small private medical and legal college presently located in Tempe, Arizona, United States. For most of its history the school was named "Lamson Business College" and was located in or near downtown Phoenix. The school's history is much more interesting than the terse, opening sentence would imply, as it turns out that it is the oldest private college in the entire state of Arizona. It was founded in 1889. It was originally located in Phoenix and known as Lamson Business College by E. (Edwin) M. Lamson (who was reputedly an Arizona Guard officer) to fill a need for more trained people for the rapidly growing business field in Phoenix (the city had about 6000 people in it at time). Like most of Phoenix's small businesses of the day the school was effectively in Mr. Lamson's house on Washington between the streets that were THEN called "Mohave" and "Papago" (now 2nd Ave. and 3rd Ave.). With only 12 students enrolled Lamson kept the college in his house for several years, finally moving in the 1890's into the red-brick Balke Building on 1st Ave. (address was 119 N. 1st Ave.