City Directories and History: “Limestone Springs Female High School (1845). It was located on the Limestone Springs Hotel property, purchased by Rev. Thomas and William Curtis, Baptist clergymen, who operated the school from 1845 to 1863, and after the War from 1866 to 1872. The school was reopened in 1873 under Major Bomar and Captain Petty, with Peter Cooper of New York as a generous contributor. In 1880 as Cooper-Limestone Institute for Young Ladies, was placed under control of the Baptists of Spartanburg County, to which religious group Peter Cooper had donated his share of the property.
In 1899 the present title, Limestone College, was adopted. The name, from the hotel, is for the many limestone kilns and springs in the area.”
Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
An excellent example of the Late Gothic Revival style of architecture, Winnie Davis Hall was completed ca. 1904 on the campus of Limestone College, a college for women that was established in the mid 1800s. The building was named in honor of Jefferson Davis’s daughter and designed as a depository for records related to the War Between the States. It was also to serve as a center for the promotion of the study of southern history and literature. In the summer of 1899, Limestone College president Lee Davis Lodge, after receiving the consent of Mrs. Jefferson Davis, recommended to the school’s trustees that a special school of history be established. According to the 1901 Limestone College catalog: It is proposed to make Limestone a great center of historical investigation, where the rich material of the South may be collected, preserved, organized and interpreted; where thorough instruction in history will be given by scholars trained in university methods….”‘
This catalog also reported: “The ‘Winnie Davis School of History 1 is receiving the enthusiastic support of the whole South.” In 1900 the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina passed a resolution endorsing the school and directing: …any officer of the State in charge thereof to permit the authorities of the Winnie Davis School of History to obtain a copy of each and every historical publication issued by authority of the State of South Carolina, and copies of any and all historical documents are hereby permitted to be made for said Limestone “Winnie Davis School of History.” (Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History)
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