Charleston Female Seminary, 50 St. Philip Street, 1872-1882

Charleston Female Seminary, 50 St. Philip Street, 1872-1882
Also known as “Miss Kelly’s School,” the Charleston Female Seminary had 140 students and 10 teachers in this location by 1874. Miss Etta Kelly commissioned the Devereux Brothers (architect John Henry Devereux and three of his brothers) to design and build this two-story stuccoed brick school building on the grounds of her family home, 52 St. Philip Street, seen at left. The Charleston Daily News reported that “Miss Kelly’s School is conducted on the principle that, in order to fully develop the mind, a child should be taught in the midst of attractive surroundings” (July 27, 1872). Arthur Mazyck’s 1875 Guide to Charleston Illustrated, where this engraving was published, noted that Miss Kelly “insists upon calisthenics as much as on mathematics. Her success has been simply wonderful, and if it continues, she will be compelled to enlarge her accommodations, and the seminary will become, what Charleston has long needed, a first class female college.”
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