Longwood University history

The Farmville Female College was incorporated in 1860 as the increasing prosperity of the seminary led the stockholders to expand it into a college.

Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, just days after both forces passed through Farmville, soldiers from both sides of the war began to return to their homes facing a radically different country.

The college was given new life on June 5, 1875, with a new charter granted and the college renamed Farmville College.

Under Whitehead, enrollment grew by nearly half, topping 100 students in 1876.

Farmville College was reinvented once again on March 7, 1884 as the State Female Normal School—the brainchild of Doctor William Henry Ruffner, the first Virginia State Superintendent of Instruction.

In 1902, Joseph L. Jarman was named president of the State Female Normal School, a post that lasted an astounding forty-four years.

Eight paintings on the interior of the rotunda dome, created in 1905 by the Italian-born artist Eugene D. Monfalcone of Richmond, had been removed for restoration prior to the fire and were later returned to the reconstructed building.

His grandmother, Marie Eason Reveley ’40, her two sisters and her mother Carrie Rennie Eason ‘1910, were Longwood graduates; and his great-grandfather, Doctor Thomas D. Eason, chaired our biology department in the early 20th century.

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.

During Jarman's presidency, the college purchased in 1928 the nearby estate of the Longwood House, which would become the namesake of the institution in years to come.

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.

Longwood—with a focus still very much on teacher preparation—expanded its academic degrees, and in 1954 was authorized to issue graduate diplomas.

President Reveley’s father, W. Taylor Reveley III, is president of the College of William & Mary, and his grandfather, W. Taylor Reveley II, was president of Hampden-Sydney from 1963-77.

The tide swung four years later, when Longwood began to admit male summer school transfers, and then junior and senior transfers in 1971.

An anthropologist, he founded the Longwood Archeology Field School in 1980.

In 1981, Doctor Janet Greenwood became the first woman president in the modern history of Longwood.

Doctor William F. Dorrill, president from 1988–96, was instrumental in increasing Longwood's international population and expanding study-abroad opportunities for students and faculty through partnerships with numerous educational institutions around the world.

In 1995 he was selected as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Professor of the Year.

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.

On the night of the Great Fire of 2001, Joanie turned bright red upon her horse from the intense heat of the flames.

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.

Keeping with campus tradition, in 2004 three major campus buildings were named for former presidents.

The 70,822-square-foot John H. and Karen Chichester Science Center opened in 2005.

To the western end of the north core is the administration building, Lancaster, as well as Jarman Auditorium and the Chichester Science Center, which was completed in 2007.

In October 2009, Joanie on the Pony was vandalized.

After being restored, she was placed in Ruffner Hall in April 2010.

In 2011 Men's Rugby won the National Championship.

That building is adjacent to Bedford Hall, home of the art program, which was expanded and renovated in 2012.

On March 23, 2013, Longwood's Board of Visitors introduced W. Taylor Reveley IV as the university's 26th president.

In 2015, Longwood and Moton entered into a formal affiliation.

For more than 8 years, President W. Taylor Reveley IV has led a period of growth and progress at Longwood, from hosting the 2016 United States Vice Presidential Debate to reinvestment in campus infrastructure.