OBC (secret Society) - History

History

In March 1865, previously-secret legislation to create an official Special and Secret Bureau of the War Department was enacted by the Confederate Congress, and the Battle of Asheville was waged that April on the grounds of Woolsey Dip, the area which would eventually become the present-day campus of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. A small group of Confederate reserves stationed in the city was victorious; remaining Union troops were forced to withdraw to Tennessee. After the unexpected victory, rumors of the Confederate soldiers’ potential association with the new Bureau arose. However, in preparation for the evacuation of Richmond, Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin burned nearly all official documents related to the formation of the Secret Service, and the rumors were never able to be confirmed or dispelled. In the following years, rumors turned to the existence of a secret society in Woolsey Dip, alleged to have been organized by the small band of Confederate soldiers.

The Buncombe County Junior College opened its doors on September 12, 1927, welcoming 86 men and women free of tuition. However, tuition became necessary to the school’s continuation in 1929 with the advent of the Great Depression. That year also saw the passage of the first graduating class, known as the “29 of ’29,” and a merger with Asheville City College, after which it was known as Biltmore College. In 1934, the college changed location to College Street in downtown Asheville, and in 1936 it was chartered as Asheville-Biltmore College and accredited by the United States Department of Education. The school moved twice more over the next 15 years, first to Biltmore Avenue, south of downtown, then north of downtown to Merrimon Avenue. Finally, in 1948, the Alumni Association was founded under direction of United States House Representative Roy A. Taylor, the valedictorian of the class of ‘29, and the following year the college was moved to Seely’s Castle on Sunset Mountain.

It was during the period of the college’s residence at Seely’s Castle that rumors of a secret society in Asheville arose once more. A small group of students whose possessions included artifacts from the American Civil War, referring to themselves as simply OBC, was alleged to use the lowest rooms of the castle to hold secret meetings, beginning a tradition of underground meeting places that is rumored to hold true to today. The original purpose of the group was believed to have been the creation of a public liberal arts college, as the society has been long associated with projects aimed at the improvement of what has now become the University.