VA-I15A Longwood University

Marker text: LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY

Longwood University is a state-supported institution developed from the privately owned Farmville Female Seminary that was incorporated in 1839. In 1884, it became a public institution when the Commonwealth acquired the property and renamed it the State Female Normal School at Farmville. It was the first state institution of higher learning for women in Virginia. Former Virginia superintendent of public instruction, William H. Ruffner, was its first president, serving from 1884 to 1887. The school has undergone a number of name changes and became Longwood College in 1949 and Longwood University in 2002. The university became coeducational in 1976.

Department of Historic Resources, 2003