Norfolk College for Young Ladies

The Norfolk College for Young Ladies was a finishing school in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia that operated from 1880 to 1899.

Norfolk College for Young Ladies
The College building in Norfolk, VA., circa 1887
Active1880–1899
External image
Building as Hotel Lee, with retail stores on ground floors, ca. 1940

The college was chartered on Feb. 20, 1880 and opened with 125 students. John L. Roper was president of the college's board.[1] The school was founded to reduce the flow of young women leaving Norfolk for their education.[2] It was located at the northwest corner of Granby and Washington Streets; in 1887 Washington Street was renamed "College Place".[3] In 1899, Mary Washington College took over the building for a few years.[4][5]

In 1905 the building reopened as the Algonquin Hotel,[3] one of several downtown hotels newly built or converted to accommodate the crowds of visitors expected for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907. Over the years, the building operated as a hotel under various names. In 1918, it became the Hotel Edward, and in 1936 the Hotel Lee.[3] Until the 1960s, the ground floor was the location of various retail stores on Granby St., including a People's Drug Store.[6] After a 1983 fire, the building was demolished.[3]

The school's former location on "College Place" is now part of the Norfolk campus of Tidewater Community College.

Alumna

References
  1. Yarsinske, Amy Waters (2015). Norfolk Through Time. Arcadia Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-63500-001-6.
  2. Johnson, Joan Marie. Southern Women at the Seven Sister Colleges, p. 47 (2008)
  3. "College Place". Norfolk Public Library. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  4. Norfolk: The First Four Centuries, p. 248 (1994)
  5. (28 September 1899). Mary Washington College: It Opened Yesterday With Bright Prospects, Virginian Pilot
  6. Photo of building with People's Drug Store in ground floor retail space on Granby, ca. 1940; building marquee is "Hotel Lee"

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.