Location: US 158/258 (Main Street) at Wynn Street in Murfreesboro
County: Hertford
Original Date Cast: 1976
Wesleyan Female College, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church, opened in Murfreesboro in 1853. It closed temporarily during the Civil War but reopened promptly in 1865. About 1500 students had attended the college by 1877, when the building burned. Due to difficulties with obtaining insurance payments, Wesleyan the college was unable to rebuild and reopen until 1881. The second facility was constructed of brick with a tin roof and was described in the Journal of the North Carolina Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1892 as “three stories high, large and comfortable, heated throughout by steam; situated in a beautiful campus, in a quiet and moral village, and among a cultured and refined people.” Wesleyan Female College burned again; however, the following year and it was not rebuilt.
Wesleyan Female College was located on East High Street between Wynn and College Streets in Murfreesboro. Past residents of 100 High Street reported finding brick foundations when digging in their yard. A local resident, John R. Evans, remembered the second building having faced College Street (east) at that location.
References:
William S. Powell, Higher Education in North Carolina (1964)
Rev. W. Allen Wentz and Walter C. Lackey, letter to the Research Branch, Sept. 12, 1974, files of the Research Branch, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Journal of the North Carolina Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1892)
Wesleyan Female College, Annual Catalogue of Wesleyan Female College, Murfreesboro, North Carolina (1858)