Chowan College

By Frank Stephenson

Located in the picturesque northeastern corner of North Carolina in Murfreesboro and Hertford County, Chowan College is the second oldest of the state's Baptist colleges. Founded in 1848, the school began as Chowan Baptist Female Institute and did not begin admitting male students until 1931, almost a century after its opening. In 1937, the Great Depression forced the school to become a two-year junior college, but it regained four-year status in 1992. Since then, Chowan College has enjoyed a myriad of successes, including being named one of the South's premier third-tier comprehensive colleges and ranked ninth in terms of diversity by U.S. News and World Report. Recognized for such programs as elementary education, graphic communications, and environmental science, Chowan College is truly one of the South's hidden treasures.

The black-and-white images in Chowan College trace the vast history of the school's existence, while also capturing the natural beauty of the campus. Through the vintage photographs and accompanying narrative, Chowan College's tradition unfolds-providing a detailed glimpse of the institution's athletic, extracurricular, social, and aesthetic history. This pictorial chronicle also showcases the architecture of the campus and displays the familiar faces of Chowan's past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 23, 2004
• ISBN: 9781439612644

Frank Stephenson

Frank A. Stephenson is a professional forensic engineer. Born in Helena, MT., he finally realized that everyone does not own two sets of tires, three sets of clothes, antifreeze, ice scrapers, a snow shovel, so he moved to Phoenix. He is married to Brenda and has four grown children: Patty, Scott, Ashley, and Jennifer.

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1920s.

INTRODUCTION

I was six years old when my father and I visited the abandoned campus of Chowan College. It was a warm Saturday afternoon in May 1946. Having been closed for three years, the campus and its buildings showed signs of neglect and abuse. That visit began my lifetime association with the college. My father probably never suspected that my youngest sister and I, two of his three children, would graduate from Chowan College and that I would spend most of my adult life working there. On that visit, my father told me that he was about my age when he first visited the college as a young boy back in 1915 with my grandfather, Eugene F. Stephenson. My grandfather came to Chowan to donate food in answer to President Lineberry’s plea to the area. The college had hit a financial rough spot and was low on food for students. My father said local farmers donated large quantities of salt pork, lard, flour, corn meal, molasses, potatoes, and home-canned vegetables.

I visited the abandoned Chowan College campus twice more. In the spring of 1947, my first-grade class, with our teacher Miss Bell, and Mrs. Dorothy Brown, our grade mother, went to the campus for an Easter egg hunt. I especially remember the flying squirrels on campus and climbing over downed trees and fallen limbs.

In 1848, a group of Baptist men from Eastern North Carolina, concerned about their daughters’ futures, founded Chowan College. Their institution would come to have a major impact on Eastern North Carolina and Southeast Virginia, an influence that began more than 150 years ago and, on a national scale, continues today.

The original college building, the McDowell Columns, is the signature focal point of Chowan College’s 289-acre campus, which is described as one of the most beautiful small college campuses in the United States. In 1856, a few years following the establishment of the college, a landscape plan was utilized to develop the grounds in front of the McDowell Columns Building. This work was completed in 1859 and much of the formal design can still be seen. The McDowell Columns Building, built in 1851, remains in use as the college’s administration building. Chowan College, the second oldest of North Carolina’s seven Baptist colleges, was one of a few colleges in the South that did not close during the Civil War. In 1910, the name Chowan Baptist Female Institute was changed to Chowan College.

Since 1848, Chowan College has had a proud history of producing teachers who have had a major impact on education in North Carolina and Virginia. Today, Chowan College’s Department of Education is ranked as one of the best in North Carolina, and U.S. News and World Report named Chowan as one of the South’s premier third-tier comprehensive colleges and ranked it ninth in diversity.

Until 1931, Chowan College remained a four-year college for women. Then the decision was made to admit men and, in 1937, it became a two-year institution. Chowan remained a two-year college until 1943, when it closed due to the shortage of students during World War II. Between 1943 and 1948, there were a number of attempts to reopen Chowan College, but not on its campus in Murfreesboro; however, in 1948, 100 years after its opening, another group of men from Murfreesboro and the surrounding region launched a successful effort to reopen the college on its original campus. Opened in 1949, the co-ed junior college experienced unparalleled growth and had a great impact on North Carolina, Virginia, and the East Coast. Its football, basketball, and baseball teams from the junior college era produced graduates who later became players in the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and Major League baseball. In 1993, Chowan College returned to four-year college status. Today, young men and women from 42 states and 21 foreign countries study here.

The story of Chowan College is a remarkable story of endurance, courage, strength, character, and survival. This venerable institution has taken powerful shots from wars, hurricanes, ice storms, thunder storms, tornados, fires,