Our History
Brief
Southern Virginia University began as Bowling Green Female Seminary in 1867. At that time, "seminary" referred to a school for girls. In 1900, the school moved to a resort hotel in Buena Vista and changed its name to Southern Seminary. The hotel, built in 1890, is now Main Hall and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. From 1922 to 1996, the school operated as a junior college until declining enrollments and financial instability threatened to close its doors. In 1996, a group of interested Latter-day Saints assumed responsibility for the institution, its assets and liabilities, and converted it into a four-year liberal arts college. That fall, the "new" Southern Virginia College enrolled 74 students. Since then it has grown to more than 800 students. In 2001, the name was changed to Southern Virginia University.
Full
Southern Virginia University is an institution of higher learning with a long tradition. The school was founded in 1867 during Virginia's post-Civil War era when Alice Scott Chandler established the Home School for Girls in Bowling Green, Va., later renamed the Bowling Green Female Seminary. In 1883, Dr. Edgar H. Rowe purchased the school and operated it with Mrs. Chandler as principal. Dr. Rowe moved the school to Buena Vista in 1900, and changed its name to Southern Seminary. It was located in the splendid Buena Vista Hotel, which had been built 10 years earlier to accommodate the large numbers of land speculators investigating the town's iron ore deposits. The iron boom was short-lived, however, and Dr. Rowe was purchased the hotel. The original hotel still serves as Main Hall, the university's principal building, and holds a place of distinction on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1919, Dr. Robert Lee Durham, former dean of Martha Washington College, bought a half-interest in Southern Seminary and became the resident head of the school. An educator, lawyer, engineer, author and inventor, Dr. Durham strengthened the school's academic program. In 1922, Dr. Durham's daughter, Margaret, married H. Russell Robey, who purchased Dr. Rowe's remaining interest in the school and became its business manager and treasurer. Dr. Durham and Mr. Robey added college-level courses to the school's curriculum, and the first class of the new junior college program graduated in 1925. The period of greatest physical growth of the school, by then called Southern Seminary and Junior College, occurred during the presidency of Margaret Durham Robey, who succeeded her father upon his retirement in 1942. Facilities for art, early childhood education and home economics were added.
In 1959, the Robeys turned over the ownership of the college to a Board of Trustees, and the institution changed from proprietary to nonprofit status. In 1961, the school ceased offering high school courses, and the name of the institution was changed to Southern Seminary Junior College. The academic program was expanded to allow students to begin careers after their two years at the school or to transfer to four-year colleges. "Sem" became a nationally recognized competitor in intercollegiate riding, winning numerous state, regional and national equestrian competitions. By the early 1990s it had been generally forgotten that a seminary was anything but a school preparing one for the ministry. To avoid confusion, the name was again changed to Southern Virginia College for Women, which was shortened in 1994 to Southern Virginia College, when male students were admitted.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s enrollment began to slip and the college became financially unstable, which led to a loss of regional accreditation in 1996.
In the spring of that year, a group of Latter-day Saints in Virginia stepped forward to renew the college, assuming responsibility for its assets and liabilities. Since then the institution has experienced phenomenal growth. The name was changed to Southern Virginia University in April 2001. Southern Virginia continues to grow and progress, adding to the history and legacy of a great institution.
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