Dr. Annie Alexander

Charlotte, NC

Founded in 1857 as the Charlotte Female Institute, this Presbyterian school was one of many Southern academies established to educate young women in an era when higher learning was largely closed to them. It relocated to this Myers Park campus in 1915 as Charlotte grew into a regional hub, and opened its doors to men in 1987. The institution's long arc traces the changing place of women and church-founded colleges in American education.

Charlotte, NC

In the autumn of 1780, the Revolution's southern campaign swept into the North Carolina backcountry, and for a few tense weeks Lord Cornwallis's British army occupied Charlotte — a town so fiercely rebellious he reportedly branded it a "hornet's nest." This marker honors Jane Parks McDowell, who according to local memory rode ten hard miles to carry word to the American camp as the British pulled out of the town. Her ride belongs to that anxious moment when Patriot militia shadowed every British move through the Carolina Piedmont.

Concord, NC

Founded in 1867 by the Rev. Luke Dorland under Presbyterian auspices, Scotia Seminary set out to educate Black women in the wake of emancipation. In 1930 it merged with the Barber Memorial Institute to form Barber-Scotia College, and it opened to men in 1954. For generations it trained teachers and leaders across the segregated South.

Mount Pleasant, NC

Founded on the eve of the Civil War, Mont Amoena Seminary gave young women in the Carolina Piedmont a formal education at a time when few schools would. Run by the Lutheran church, it took a Latinized version of its hometown's name — "Pleasant Mountain" — and educated girls for nearly seventy years, closing in the 1920s. It stood as the counterpart to the men's colleges just up the street in Mount Pleasant.