Location: NC 71 (Third Avenue) at NC 211 (Main Street) in Red Springs
County: Robeson
Original Date Cast: 1941
Founded in 1896, Flora MacDonald College was originally known as Red Springs College. An all-female institution operated by the Fayetteville Presbytery, the school’s name was changed to the Southern Presbyterian College and Conservatory of Music in 1903. Eleven years later, in recognition of the support of local citizens of Scottish descent and to honor Flora MacDonald, Scottish heroine who lived for five years nearby in the eighteenth century, the school changed its name to Flora MacDonald College.
The college expanded considerably in the post-World War II era, but in 1955 the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina decided to merge the school with Peace College and Presbyterian Junior College into a single four-year coeducational institute. Six years later with the opening of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, Flora MacDonald College ceased to exist. The former campus was then sold to the Red Springs Development Corporation for $50,000.
References:
William S. Powell, Higher Education in North Carolina (1964)
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina (2006)
William R. Bracey, “A History of Flora MacDonald College” (M.A. Thesis, Appalachian State University, 1962)