Flora Macdonald College [1]
Flora Macdonald College
See Also: North Carolina Women's Colleges [2]
Flora Macdonald College in Red Springs originated in 1896 as Red Springs Seminary, a Presbyterian school that was the successor to Floral College (1841-78). In 1903 the college was renamed Southern Presbyterian College and Conservatory of Music, and in 1915 it became Flora MacDonald [3]College-named for the popular Scottish heroine who lived in the Carolina colony for five years beginning in 1774.
In 1952 the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina authorized a study of seven of the Presbyterian colleges under its jurisdiction and decided to merge Flora Macdonald College with Peace and Presbyterian Junior College to form one coeducational, four-year college to be located at Laurinburg. Chartered in 1958, St. Andrews Presbyterian College [4] opened in September 1961. On 26 Oct. 1961, the Flora MacDonald property was sold to the Red Springs Development Corporation for $50,000.
References:
William Richard Bracey, "A History of Flora MacDonald College" (M.A. thesis, Appalachian State University, 1962).
William S. Powell, North Carolina: The Story of a Special Kind of Place (1987).
Dorothy M. Quynn, "Flora MacDonald in History," NCHR 18 (1941).
Additional Resource:
"Flora Macdonald College." N.C. Highway Historical Marker I-24, N.C. Office of Archives & History. https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/division-historical-resources/nc-highway-historical-marker-program/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&k=Markers&sv=I-24 [5]
Flora Macdonald College Yearbooks: https://lib.digitalnc.org/search?ln=en&p=691:%22Flora+Macdonald+College%22%20AND%20655:%22Yearbooks%22&sf=year&so=a [6]
Image Credit:
"Flora MacDonald College." Photo courtesy of the St. Andrews Presbyterian College website. Available from # (accessed May 2, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Williams, Wiley J.