Blackstone College

Three blocks south is the campus of the former Blackstone Female Institute, after 1915 Blackstone College for Girls, a teacher-training school that opened in 1894 with some 75 students including 29 boarders. James Cannon Jr., a controversial Methodist bishop and prohibitionist, twice served as chief administrator (1894-1911, 1914-1918). In 1906, U.S. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie donated money to expand the main building. The Beaux-Arts president's home, called The Gables, was built in 1915. Enrollment neared 500 before fires in 1920 and 1922 destroyed the classroom and dormitory buildings. Rebuilt on a smaller scale, the college operated until 1950. It became the Virginia Methodist Assembly Center in 1955.