Biddle Hall

Approx. Time: 1 hours
Activity Level: Easiest

In 1867, the Rev. S.C. Alexander and the Rev. W. L. Miller saw the need to establish an institution in this section of the South. On April 7, 1867, at a meeting of the Catawba Presbytery in the old Charlotte Presbyterian Church, the movement for the school was formally inaugurated, and these two ministers were elected as teachers.

Mrs. Mary D. Biddle, an excellent churchwoman of Philadelphia, PA, who, through appeals in one of the church papers, pledged $1,400 to the school. In appreciation of this first and generous contribution, friends requested Mrs. Biddle to name the newly established school after her late husband, Major Henry Biddle. From 1867 to 1876, the school was named Biddle Memorial Institute and chartered by the state legislature.

In 1883, a new university building was erected and served as the main administrative building for the University. Presently known as Biddle Memorial Hall, the building featured recitation rooms and a 600-seat audience chamber and an annex for the chapel.