MUW opened as the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College in 1885.
However, it was not a completely new school, as it evolved out of the 1847 Columbus Female Institute, which closed in 1884 so that it could be transferred to the state and reopened as a state “girl’s college” the next year. Historic Callaway Hall is the only surviving Columbus Female Institute building.
On April 27, 1860, a fire destroyed the boarding house of the Columbus Female Institute. James Lull, a trustee of the school and an architect, was given the task of preparing plans for a new building that could properly serve the school. His design was for the largest Gothic building to ever be constructed in Columbus. The plans were soon completed and by the end of 1860 the brick walls were in place and construction rapidly proceeding.
Ken P’Pool has described the building as being “of High Victorian Gothic design and was one of the first buildings of that style to be constructed in America. … The focal point of the new structure was to be a large ‘gothicized’ tower, the inspiration for which was probably taken from the tower of the Packer Collegiate Institute (ca. 1854-1856) in Brooklyn, New York.”
According to Ken, Callaway’s High Victorian Gothic Style is often called “Ruskinian Gothic” as it was largely based on Italian Gothic models introduced to America in two books by English social critic and architectural theorist John Ruskin between 1849 and 1853.
During the Civil War, there were three large Confederate hospitals in Columbus. Callaway Hall served as one of them.
A Confederate hospital inspection report dated May 2, 1862, referred to Callaway as Newsom Hospital. It had three surgeons and three physicians with a 190-bed capacity, but when inspected it was filled with 287 patients. A Dr. Shattuck, from Vermont, was a math instructor at the Columbus Female Institute but had previously studied medicine. In early 1862, with the pressing need for doctors at the rapidly expanding Confederate hospitals in Columbus, Shattuck became a surgeon at Newsom Hospital and later served as a major and surgeon in Forrest Calvary.
On June 17, 1872, the trustees of the Columbus Female Institute met with Chancellor Lyon of the University of Mississippi and offered its campus as the female division of the State University. However, the Legislature failed to act on the offer. Mindful of its role as a college for young ladies, the Female Institute rejected a suggestion to offer its campus to the proposed A&M College (Miss State) in 1878.
On March 12, 1884, efforts begun in 1856 by Sallie Renau and continued by Annie Peyton paid off as the state Legislature established the Industrial Institute and College for the education of girls “in the arts and sciences.” The trustees of the Columbus Female Institute took an active role in the legislative efforts. The Legislature had been considering a bill to establish a state female college in February of 1884, and on February 15, the trustees began taking the steps necessary to enable the campus to be donated to the state.
The trustees’ plan called for the stockholders of the school to sell it to persons who would then donate the school and campus to the state. On March 15, the trustees sent a committee to Jackson with authority to do what was necessary to secure Columbus as the location of the state female college. On June 19, 1884, after the trustees had published notice of a public sale, James Sykes, Charles Locke and James Bell bought the Columbus Female Institute. They paid $100 for the school property so that it could then be legally donated to the state.
The Columbus offer was accepted, and the state then made improvements to the campus which added a clock tower to the belfry on “Old Main” (now Callaway Hall) and according to the October 1885, Sanborn Insurance Map, even added electric lights to the building. The Orr Building was also built next door and connected to Callaway by a wooden walkway. In addition, Moore Hall (where Whitfield Hall is now located) and the other buildings of the former Columbus Female Institute were reused.
In October 1885, the Industrial Institute and College opened its first session at what had been the Columbus Female Institute. Today historic Callaway Hall is the only surviving Columbus Female Institute building.
The earliest detailed drawing of Callaway I have seen is an article on the Industrial Institute and College published in the July 4, 1885, edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. The New York news magazine reported that the grounds and buildings acquired for the college “…will be one of, if not the most capacious and imposing buildings for the purpose in the country.” The account concluded by stating, “In this Institute and College, Mississippi has set an example which we hope to see followed by other States, until our girls everywhere can gain such an education as will fit them for the practical and profitable employments of life.”
Callaway Hall remains in use and is a visual reminder of The W’s 172-year heritage of unequaled women’s (and now men’s) quality education. The auditory reminders of the ghosts of Callaway are food for another column. And by the way, going back to its origins as Columbus Female Institute (which was an actual college), MUW as a college is a year older than Ole Miss.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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