Covenant College has it own history in Pasadena. The college was founded here in 1955, but moved to St. Louis after only one year because it needed expanded facilities, according to the Covenant website. It moved to Georgia in 1964.

Tiny Providence Christian College already had been planning for significant growth when it announced a merger with a larger school near Chattanooga, Tenn., last week.

Providence, with 74 students, figures to become the West Coast arm of Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., which has more than 1,000 students and shares a Reformed-based theology and Christian mission.

Covenant’s board of trustees signed a letter of intent on Friday, and the merger is scheduled to be finalized this summer.

“There’s a pretty natural affinity between the two,” said Providence President J. Derek Halvorson, who will become president of both colleges. “To partner with a much older and stronger institution accelerates the rate at which Providence can develop out here.”

Providence moved to Pasadena from Ontario in 2010, eight years after it was founded.

It shares its campus with William Carey International University in Pasadena’s East Washington Village neighborhood, and Halvorson expects the college to add classroom space and student residences as it continues to establish its in the city. Providence will keep its name, but add the Covenant College name.

Providence is also about a year away from accreditation, so the merger will help that process, said Larissa Kamps, Providence’s spokeswomen and director of enrollment.

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