1772 April

The first school for girls begins in Salem. Three students under the age of eight are taught by Elisabeth Oesterlein in what becomes known as the Girls School. Classes are taught in the Gemeinhaus. By 1774, there are seven students.

1774

Martha Elizabeth Miksch is a student at the Girls School. In the early 1780s, she becomes a teacher thus being the first in a long tradition of graduates who serve as faculty.

1785

The cornerstone is laid for Single Sisters House. Completed in 1786, it is the oldest existing building on campus.

1793

Anna Maria Samuel was the first African American student at the Girls School in Salem. Anna Maria’s father was the first man baptized in Salem. Her family are well-known members of St. Philip’s Moravian Church, located immediately south of the College campus on Church Street.

1805 July 16

The Boarding School building is dedicated. According to advertisements placed in newspapers, admission is offered to girls between ages 8 and 12. Students may stay until the age of 16.

1807

Salem Female Academy awards its first certificate of completion to Mary Lewis whose granddaughter, Margaret McDowell Siler, is a member of the first Academy class to receive diplomas in 1878. A century later, Mary Lewis’s great granddaughter, Louise Siler, teaches at Salem from 1914 to 1918.

Photo of Emma Lehman, Margaret McDowell Siler, and Louise Siler.

1802 Oct 31

Salem Congregation formally votes to establish a boarding school for

girls. For the first time, non-Moravian girls are invited to attend the school.

1803 Oct 3

The cornerstone of the Boarding School building, now known as South Hall, is laid.

1811

The Inspector’s House is erected. Two additions are added in 1838 and 1850.

 

1811 May 31

Betsey, the enslaved daughter of Phoebe and Bodney, is purchased by Inspector Steiner for $400 to work at the Boarding School. In 1817, Betsey is sold to Conrad Kreuser. Over the next decades until the end of the Civil War, Salem Female Academy will own and rent enslaved people to work at the school.

1817 May

Sarah Childress, age 13, enrolls at Salem with her older sister. She is educated at Salem Female Academy until shortly before her 16th birthday in 1819. As

Mrs. James K. Polk, she serves from 1845 to 1849 as First Lady. She is the first wife of a U.S. president to have a formal education.

1804 May

The first boarding pupils (four girls from Hillsborough) arrive before completion of the boarding school building. The decision is made not to send them home, but instead to allow them to stay in the Gemeinhaus.