A brief history of Warren Wilson College
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See the Quick Reference for a list of contacts relavent to the Parent Handbook.In 1893 the Women's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church purchased the land where Warren Wilson College stands today. The women of the church were concerned that many Americans in isolated areas were not receiving a proper education and decided to establish church supported schools in areas where there were no public services.
In 1894, the Asheville Farm School officially opened with 25 boys attending and a professional staff of three. It was not until 1923 that the school had its first graduating class. In 1936, the first post-secondary programs in vocational training began with the goal of giving students more opportunities in the job market. In 1942, the junior college division was established, while the Asheville Farm School continued as a boys unit in high school studies. Also at that time, the Dorland-Bell School of Hot Springs merged with the Farm School, bringing high school age girls to campus, and Warren Wilson Vocational Junior College was joined with them under one administration.
After World War II, the public education system in North Carolina improved dramatically, and the need for the mission's high school diminished. The last high school class was graduated in 1957. Warren Wilson College was a junior college until March 1966 when it was established as a four-year college, offering six majors. In 1972, the National Board of Missions deeded the Warren Wilson College property to the college's Board of Trustees. Since that time, the College has grown and changed in many ways. In 1981 the first low-residency graduate program in writing in the country moved to Warren Wilson College and remains the school's only graduate division. Most recently, an Outdoor Leadership major was added, and in 1996 the North Carolina Outward Bound School moved its headquarters to campus.
Throughout the years, the farm and garden have remained as definitive features of the College. The five-acre college garden is certified as an organic vegetable and fruit garden and apple orchard. The 275-acre "River Friendly" farm has over 100 hormone-free, antibiotic-free beef cattle, hogs and free-range chickens. Beef, pork and eggs from the farm and organic produce from the garden are available in season to the Warren Wilson community.
Who was Warren Wilson?
Warren Hugh Wilson (1867-1937) was born near Tidioute, Pennsylvania in 1867 and spent his teen years in nearby Bradford, where his father moved the family in 1879. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1890 and moved to New York City, where he became the first secretary of the YMCA. In 1908 he received his doctorate from Columbia University where he worked on a thesis that was described as "the first studies in the sociology of rural life in America." That same year Mr. Wilson joined the staff of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as one of two superintendents in the Department of Church and Labor. Many feel that the rural church movement that complemented the rising national interest in rural life owed its origin to the work of Warren Wilson. He died just prior to his 70th birthday on March 1, 1937.