Ward-Belmont College

Ward-Belmont College was a women's college, also known at the time as a "ladies' seminary," located in Nashville, Tennessee on the grounds of the antebellum estate of Adelicia Acklen.

The school utilized the grounds of the former Acklen estate and mansion, with a quadrangle of academic and residential buildings being erected over time on the front lawn. It was regarded as a very prestigious "finishing school" by the more aristocratic families of Middle Tennessee, although some students were from considerably farther away.

History

In 1865, William E. Ward and his wife, Eliza Hudson Ward, opened Ward Seminary for Young Ladies in Nashville, Tennessee, to offer "a full and thorough course of instruction, embracing academic and collegiate work."

In 1870, the Educational Bureau in Washington, D.C., ranked Ward Seminary among the top three educational institutions for women in the nation. The school also placed emphasis on athletics, organizing the first girls' varsity basketball team in the South and one of the first in the nation.

Ward Seminary and Belmont College for Young Women merged in 1913 to form Ward-Belmont, the first junior college in the South to receive full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. By the 1920s, it had an enrollment of more than 1,200 women.

In 1950, under financial constraints, Ward-Belmont's campus was sold to the Tennessee Baptist Convention to be operated as Belmont College (now Belmont University). A new, modern, non-residential girls' high school, Harpeth Hall School, was erected in the affluent Green Hills section of Nashville to take the place of Ward-Belmont.

The original campus remained under the aegis of the Tennessee Baptist Convention until 2007, when Belmont University became independent of its control.

Notable alumnae

* Jean Faircloth, philanthropist
* Elizabeth P. Farrington, publisher of the "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" and Congressional Delegate
* Clare Boothe Luce, editor and playwright
* Mary Martin, actress
* Grace Moore, singer
* Minnie Pearl (Sarah Colley Cannon), country music singer
* Lila Acheson Wallace, co-founder of "Reader's Digest"

ee also

* List of current and historical women's universities and colleges in the United States

External links

* [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=H022 Harpeth Hall School and Ward-Belmont] in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
* [http://forum.belmont.edu/umac/archives/2004/10/wardbelmont_alu.html Belmont University: Ward-Belmont Reunion]