Huntingdon College is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

college in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

. It was founded in 1854 as a women's college.

History

Huntingdon College was chartered on February 2, 1854, as " Tuskegee Female College" by the

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

State Legislature and Governor

John A. Winston John Anthony Winston (September 4, 1812 – December 21, 1871) was a planter, military officer, and politician who became the List of Governors of Alabama, 15th Governor of Alabama, Governor of Alabama (1853 to 1857) after serving as president ...

. The first president was Andrew Adgate Lipscomb. Dr. Lipscomb laid the foundation of the college as a teaching college rather than a research institution. In 1872 the name was changed to "Alabama Conference Female College," as the college came under the auspices of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

. As the college and the South struggled to rebuild following the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, college leaders believed they needed to relocate the institution to a more populous city, and they chose the state's capital, Montgomery. In 1908, they purchased a parcel of land on what was then the outskirts of town; it is now part of the Old Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery. The campus landscaping was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., who had also planned the

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 a ...

and Central Park. The college, renamed as "Woman's College of Alabama," moved all of its furniture, lab chemicals, and records into Hamner Hall in Montgomery on August 24, 1909. The building burned to the ground that night, destroying the records of the college's first 50 years and all of its furnishings. The students and President William Martin moved to Sullins College in Virginia for that school year, and construction continued on the college's first building, John Jefferson Flowers Memorial Hall. Completed in 1910 and designed by Harvard architect H. Langford Warren, Flowers Hall was designed to emulate the collegiate Gothic architecture of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

universities in England, and of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It set the tone that was followed for the architectural style of the campus. The college admitted its first male students in the aftermath of World War I, graduating the first male student in 1934. Realizing that the name Woman's College of Alabama no longer fit its student body, the college was renamed in 1935 as Huntingdon College, in honor of

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (24 August 1707 – 17 June 1791) was an English religious leader who played a prominent part in the religious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales. She founded an ...

, a notable supporter of John Wesley and of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

. In the early 21st century, Huntingdon offers more than 50 undergraduate programs of study and 18 NCAA-III intercollegiate athletic teams that participate in the USA South Athletic Conference. Between 2002 and 2012, enrollment increased by 53% in the traditional day program and 88% overall (594 to 1118). The ''

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

'' listed Huntingdon in 2014 among the "Fastest Growing Colleges in America."

Campus

Huntingdon's campus is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as the Huntingdon College Campus Historic District. The district contains thirteen

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, built in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

styles, and one site. The district was placed on the NRHP on February 24, 2000. The college expanded across Fairview Avenue, adding the Cloverdale Campus in 2001. Huntingdon College Houghton Library

Athletics

Huntingdon College teams participate as a member of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. The Hawks are members of the

Collegiate Conference of the South The Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS) is an athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Member schools are located in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and K ...

(CCS), formed in July 2022 by an amicable split of the

USA South Athletic Conference The USA South Athletic Conference (formerly the Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or the Dixie Conference) is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member schools are located in North Carolina and Virginia. H ...

. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. Huntingdon is the only four-year college in the state of Alabama to offer collegiate wrestling. With the CCS not sponsoring football, women's golf, or lacrosse for either sex, Huntingdon remains in the USA South for those sports.

The "Red Lady"

Huntingdon College is the home of the " Red Lady." She is alleged to be the

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

of a female student from the early twentieth century who took her life inside her room in Pratt Hall.Windham, Kathryn Tucker: ''Thirteen Alabama Ghosts'' and Jeffrey, Chapter 11: "The Red Lady of Huntingdon College." University of Alabama Press, 2014: pp. 97-104.

Notable alumni

Notable Huntingdon alumni include: *

Leura Canary Leura ( postcode: 2780) is a suburb in the City of Blue Mountains local government area that is located west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the series of small towns stretched along the Main ...

(1978), former U.S. Attorney *

Joe Durant Joseph Scott Durant (born April 7, 1964) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He was previously a member of the PGA Tour, where he was a four-time winner. Early life Durant was born in Pensacola, Florida. He a ...

(1987), professional golfer * Elizabeth Hight (1977), career US Navy, Rear admiral *

Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numero ...

(1944-1945), Novelist *

Jeff Sessions Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States Attorney General from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as United State ...

(1969), attorney and politician, U.S. Senator and

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Maria Howard Weeden Maria Howard Weeden (July 6, 1846 – April 12, 1905), who signed her work and published as Howard Weeden, was an American artist and poet based in Huntsville, Alabama. After the American Civil War, she began to sell works she painted, which incl ...

, painter and poet *

Kathryn Tucker Windham Kathryn Tucker Windham (née Tucker, June 2, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American storyteller, author, photographer, folklorist, and journalist. She was born in Selma, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Thomasville. Tucker got her first writi ...

(1939), writer

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1854 1854 establishments in Alabama Universities and colleges in Montgomery, Alabama Methodism in Alabama Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Reportedly haunted locations in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery, Alabama Historic districts in Montgomery, Alabama Gothic Revival architecture in Alabama Tudor Revival architecture in Alabama Private universities and colleges in Alabama