Wilkes Community College history

The first one-year diploma program, Practical Nurse Education, began on March 7, 1966.

1968 The Farley Library, named in honor of President Eugene S. Farley, opens its doors.

Thompson, Hayes, and Lovette Halls, the first buildings on the Wilkes County campus on Collegiate Drive in Wilkesboro, were occupied on April 1, 1969.

1972 Colonels pull together to help the college and the community weather the Agnes Flood.

Townes was a gardener who started teaching in 1973.

The college also has a center in Alleghany County, which began offering continuing education courses in 1974 from its downtown Sparta location.

The Ashe Campus in Jefferson originally started offering CE classes in 1975, and curriculum courses in the late seventies through the local high schools.

1980 Max Rosenn Lecture Series in Law and Humanities is established.

1982 Students begin moving into the new Evans Hall.

The center began offering curriculum classes in 1983.

1984 Christopher Breiseth becomes the fourth president.

In 1985 a new facility was opened.

By the fall of 1987, he had developed a master plan for Wilkes Community College with a vision for 15 different gardens.

In 1988 legendary, Grammy-winning guitarist Doc Watson, WCC horticulture instructor B Townes, and local businessman and musician Bill Young started the MerleFest music festival on the campus of Wilkes Community College.

1989 Arnaud C. Marts Center welcomes its first athletes.

1990 Wilkes College gains academic prominence and transforms into Wilkes University.

1993 The University opens the Allan P. Kirby Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, serving campus and the community.

1995 The John Wilkes statue begins its watch over campus, and Breiseth Hall, then known as the Classroom Office Building (COB), opens its doors.

1996 The University establishes the School of Pharmacy, which became the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy three years late.

1999 A new student center, later named for Frank and Dorothea Henry, opens.

Alleghany County remodeled the former Bassett Walker plant to co-house the Blue Ridge Business Development Center and the Alleghany Center of Wilkes Community College in 2003.

2004 Wilkes launches the Jay S. Sidhu School of Business and Leadership.

2005 The first students begin the low-residency creative writing master’s program.

2007 Wilkes begins the Doctor of Education program.

The Ashe Campus was elevated to multi-campus status in 2008.

The Wilkes Early College, located in Randolph Hall, started in 2009.

2010 Wilkes launches the online Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

As of 2011, MerleFest has raised $9 million for WCC.

2013 The state-of-the-art Lawrence and Sally Cohen Science Center opens.

2014 The University celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Sidhu School of Business and Leadership with the dedication of its new home at the University Center on Main.

2015 Wilkes creates the Passan School of Nursing.

The Stone Culinary Center, dedicated on August 27, 2018, includes a hot lab, cold lab, bake lab, library, office space, and a dining room that gives students restaurant-style practical experience in setup, preparation, and service of meals.

by Mebane Rash, EducationNC April 23, 2020

The Blan Bottomley Welding, dedicated in June 2021, is a new 1,020 square foot, state-of-the-art facility, located adjacent to the WCC Alleghany Center.