Blackstone Female Institute

Blackstone Female Institute. Blackstone, Virginia. , The Blackstone Female Institute was conceived in 1891 by George Pierce Adams, a Blackstone merchant, and Joshua Soule Hunter, a Methodist minister. Originally designed as a school to prepare young female students to enter Randolph-Macon Women’s College, it was founded more than a decade before the establishment of a public high school system in Virginia. James Cannon Jr., who became a nationally known bishop of the Methodist Church and influential prohibitionist, was the first principal and led the school until 1912. When a more advanced curriculum was added in 1915 and the school became the Blackstone College for Girls, Cannon was chosen as the first president. Enrollment peaked at nearly 500 students before fires in 1920 and 1922 destroyed the dormitory and academic buildings. A rebuilding campaign was slow to raise funds forcing the college by 1931 to curtail its program as a leading teacher-training institution and to operate, instead, as a college preparatory school and junior college., With the onset of World War II, the U.S. Army opened Camp Pickett in Blackstone. The sudden influx of thousands of soldiers in the area and a wartime economy led the college trustees to suspend operation of the school. During that time the campus housed hundreds of military families. After the war the college reopened, but the military camp was again in full operation in 1950 due to the conflict in Korea. The military presence coupled with financial difficulties, caused the school to close permanently. Today the campus is the Virginia Methodist Assembly Center, where charitable and religious groups conduct programs throughout the year.