Meredith College history

The Southern Baptist Convention approved the construction of the Baptist Female University, and its first students enrolled at the college in 1899.

1900 – Richard Tilman Vann became the second president.

Located on North Blount Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Baptist Female University graduated its first class of ten students in 1902.

1903 – The Athletic Association began offering basketball, tennis, and volleyball.

1904 – The trustees changed the name from Baptist Female University to Baptist University for Women (BUW), and the school paid off its mortgage.

1905 – BUW established a student government, “apparently the first college in the state to do so, and one of the first in the South,” said Johnson.

Students published the first annual, Oak Leaves, and, as sophomores, the class of 1906 made the first ivy chain.

1909 – On May 24, trustees changed the name to Meredith College. “The name’s lack of pretentiousness, its brevity, and its beauty of sound were welcome,” Johnson said.

1915 also is the first year of Stunt.

1921 – President Brewer wired campus to report that Meredith was admitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; “in half an hour,” Johnson said, “every person on the campus had heard the glad news.” The Twig, the student newspaper, was first published that spring.

1924 – On March 15, 1924, the faculty presented the first production of Alice in Wonderland to the students. “Faculty Wows Students,” read the headline in the next day’s Twig.

1926 – In January, students returned from winter break to the new campus: an administration and classroom building, a dining hall, and four residence halls.

1928 – The Association of American Universities added Meredith to its list of “approved colleges.” It was the first women’s college in North Carolina to receive the distinction and the fourth school in the state.

It was introduced again in 1929.

Classes from before 1936 then created class dolls to complete the collection.

1947 – Meredith adopted its Honor Code.

1953 – The Mae Grimmer Alumnae House was built.

1954 – The class of 1954 was the first to wear the Meredith ring that is still used today.

1956 – The first edition of A History of Meredith College was published.

1968 – The first two African-American students enrolled at Meredith.

1971 – President Heilman resigned.

1972 – Doctor John E. Weems became Meredith’s sixth president, and the Massey House President’s Residence was built.

1974 – Meredith appointed its first female vice president, Doctor Sandra Thomas, and Meredith students in earnest took up the cause of women’s rights.

1978 – Sir Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, gave the first Lillian Parker Wallace Lecture.

1979 – Meredith began the paralegal program.

1983 – Meredith began offering master’s degrees in business, education, and music.

It is renamed Meredith Herald in 1986.

1987 – The Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center opened, holding the first student art exhibit that spring.

1988 – Meredith was one of two private colleges selected to participate in the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program.

1991 – Meredith celebrated its centennial anniversary, with Jean Jackson, ’75, heading the Centennial Commission.

The Class of 1992 begins the Ring Dinner tradition.

1993 – Meredith faculty and administrators began using computers, the Internet, and email.

1997 – Meredith’s continuing education program became known as the 23+ program, with Sandra Close, ’86, as the director.

1999 – Doctor Weems retired.

2001 – Meredith’s Technology Initiative began providing laptop computers for students.

2002 – Four men – the first in the College’s history – graduated from the MBA program.

2003 – Meredith held the first Celebrating Student Achievement Day, featuring awards, performances, and research presentations.

The building is renovated and renamed Martin Hall in 2004, in honor of Margaret C. Martin, ’30.

2005 – Meredith began offering the dual degree in engineering program in conjunction with NC State University.

When funding for the state program ends in 2012, Meredith launches its own program, the Meredith Teaching Fellows.

2013 – Meredith launched the Meredith College | Going Strong brand.

2014 – The College announced StrongPoints®, an advising and personal coaching program found only at Meredith that’s designed to help students maximize their college experience.

2015 – Renovations began on Johnson Hall, thanks to the gifts of Bobbitt Clay Williams, ’57, and her husband Bill Williams, and the Jud Ammons family, in memory of Jo Ellen Ammons, ’57.

A $1 million gift from Elizabeth Beam named the fountain that was renovated in 2016.

Field Hockey becomes the tenth varsity sport to be added to Meredith’s athletic offerings, with the first season to commence in 2021.