Longwood University - History

History

Founded on March 5, 1839, as the Farmville Female Seminary Association, Longwood University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States and is one of the oldest public institutions of higher education for women in the United States. The Farmville Female College was incorporated in 1860 as the increasing prosperity of the seminary led the stockholders to expand it into a college. Longwood is the third oldest public institution of higher learning in Virginia, after the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia.

On April 7, 1884, the state of Virginia acquired the property of the Farmville Female College, and in October of the same year the Normal School opened with 110 students enrolled, making it the first state institution of higher learning for women in Virginia. The Normal School expanded its curriculum over the years and progressed through a succession of names. It became the State Normal School for Women in 1914, the State Teachers College at Farmville in 1924, and Longwood College in 1949. In 1954, graduate programs were authorized. Longwood became fully coeducational in June 1976.

A popular myth on the university campus holds that whenever the college changed its name, catastrophic events, like the Ruffner fire, deemed "The Great Fire of 2001," occurred.

Other examples include:

  • 1884: The college changes its name to the State Female Normal School in Farmville. This was part of the agreement when the Commonwealth of Virginia bought the school from its original owners, because the owners were bankrupt following the Civil War.
  • 1923: Right before the school changed its name to the State Teachers College the next year, a fire destroyed the dining hall, sitting behind Ruffner Hall.
  • 1949: Just after the school changed its name to Longwood College, a fire destroyed White House Hall, a building next to East Ruffner (currently where part of Main Tabb is today), and a mirror image to Grainger Hall, which housed an auditorium. The decision was made by then-President Dabney Lancaster to wait for the new auditorium (now Jarman Hall) to open two years later, then expand Tabb to connect directly to Ruffner.
  • 2001: Just before the school changed its name to Longwood University, Ruffner Hall caught on fire during renovations and had to be rebuilt. Grainger Hall, which had been connected to Ruffner at the time, was also torn down due to damage from the fire.

On April 24, 2001, a main university building, Ruffner Hall, caught on fire and burned down despite the efforts of multiple local fire departments including the Farmville fire department. It was in the middle of a renovation and was subsequently rebuilt. Ruffner Hall, built in 1839 as the "College Building", evolved through several stages of construction and expansion from 1839 to 1907. For decades the sprawling Ruffner, whose image appears on the university's logo and seal, was the main administration building, with administrative offices on the first floor and student housing on the upper two floors. After students vacated the building by the early 1970s, dorm rooms were converted to office and classroom space. The former library, Lancaster Hall, was renovated and reopened in 1996 as the main administration building. Ruffner was then used primarily for classrooms and faculty offices before being closed in 1999 for renovation.

Governor Mark Warner officially signed legislation changing Longwood's designation to university on April 24, 2002, the one-year anniversary of the fire that destroyed Ruffner Hall.


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