Farmville Female Seminary Association
Farmville, Virginia
Founded on March 5, 1839 as the Farmville Female Seminary Association, Longwood is one of the oldest colleges originally for women in the country. In 1842 the cornerstone was laid for the first true college building, which is today known as Ruffner Hall. The College was fortunate to make it through most of the Civil War unscathed. It wasn’t until the last few days of the War, as Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his troops retreated from advancing Federal forces through Farmville, that a skirmish ensued on High Street. According to one account, “Minie balls felI about the building (Ruffner)— one crashed through a window where several girls were standing, and when they had recovered from their panic, their friends in gray had vanished Iike the phantom of a dream.”
In 1884 the Commonwealth of Virginia acquired the property, renaming it the State Female Normal School at Farmville, with 110 students. This was the first state-supported institution of higher education for women in Virginia. By 1927 it had a rating as one of the 12 most outstanding state teachers’ colleges in the country, and served as a model for similar colleges across the Commonwealth.
In 1949, after several more name changes, the school became Longwood College, named in recognition of the Longwood Estate, site of the current president’s residence, Longwood House. In 1972 the first African-American graduated from Longwood, and the College went coeducational in 1976. In 2002 the name changed again to Longwood University, representing the wide variety of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees offered in a broad range of majors.
Marker can be reached from High Street (County Route 643) south of St George Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
