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This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Flora Macdonald College

See Also: North Carolina Women's Colleges

by Wiley J. Williams, 2006

Flora MacDonald CollegeFlora 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 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 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

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

Image Credit:

"Flora MacDonald College." Photo courtesy of the St. Andrews Presbyterian College website. Available from # (accessed May 2, 2012).

Subjects: 
Education
Universities and colleges
Women
Authors: 
Williams, Wiley J.
Origin - location: 
Hoke County
Robeson County
Scotland County
From: 
Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 2006 | Williams, Wiley J.