Winthrop College Historic District
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Along Oakland Ave. between Cherry Rd. and Stewart Ave. on the Winthrop College campus, Rock Hill, SC (York County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817746022
Description and Narrative:
The Winthrop College Historic District includes twenty properties of historical and architectural merit that were constructed between 1894 and 1943 and that reflect the growth and development of the college as an innovator in education in South Carolina. These properties include academic classrooms, administrative and dormitory buildings, and an amphitheater. The historic district is significant as the first state-supported college for women in South Carolina, for its dominant role in the education of teachers for the state’s white public schools, and for its innovations in teaching methods from 1895 through the 1930s. The district is architecturally significant as an unusually intact collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century college buildings. Prominent architectural styles exhibited include Gothic Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Classical Revival or Neo-Classical, and Neo-Georgian or Colonial Revival. Winthrop was named in honor of the chairman of the Peabody Education Foundation, Robert C. Winthrop, who had done much to help Dr. David B. Johnson, superintendent of the Columbia Graded Schools, to organize the Winthrop Training School in 1886. Originally located on the grounds of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia, Winthrop was chartered by the state legislature in 1887, with Dr. Johnson as President and Governor Ben Tillman as chairman of the Board of Trustees. In compliance with the Peabody Education Foundation Board, the Winthrop Board of Trustees tendered the college to the state in November 1891, making it the first state-supported college for women in South Carolina. In 1893 the college was renamed the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina. The college opened in Rock Hill in 1895. In 1920 the name was changed to Winthrop College, the South Carolina College for Women. The college became a co-educational institution in 1974 and is now known as Winthrop University. Listed in the National Register April 23, 1987.
Period of Significance:
circa 1894 – 1943
Level of Significance:
State
Area of Significance:
Education;Architecture;Other
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
April 23 1987
