Montreat College
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Inter-denominational |
| President | Dr. Paul Maurer |
| Location | Montreat, North Carolina, United States of America |
| Campus | Rural, 43 acres |
| Nickname | Cavaliers |
| Website | www |
Montreat College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in the town of Montreat, North Carolina. Montreat College also has campuses for adults and professionals across the state of North Carolina. The School of Professional and Adult Studies has campus locations in Asheville, Charlotte, Morganton, and Online.
In 1897 a Congregationalist minister named John C. Collins from New Haven, Connecticut, joined with a number of likeminded associates from other denominations, including evangelist Weston R. Gales, to form the Mountain Retreat Association. “The corporation was not owned by one denomination but it was interdenominational in its makeup without church connection or control. The original Montreat idea has changed, grown and developed into what now is. Its name was derived from the words ‘Mountain Retreat.’” The purpose of the original organization was stated in its charter as follows: “…to establish and maintain in the mountain section of North Carolina, a municipality containing assembly grounds for the encouragement of Christian work and living through Christian convention, public worship, missionary work, schools, libraries, orphan homes, manual and trades training and other operations auxiliary and incidental thereto; also a community and health resort with places for dwellings, permanently and temporarily, for health, rest, recreation, Christian work and fellowship, together with whatever may be connected therewith, directly or incidentally.”
Today the name ‘Montreat’ is used for at least three different entities including Montreat College. The original Mountain Retreat Association still exists, but was transformed into a Presbyterian conference center less than ten years after its creation when J. R. Howerton of Charlotte, North Carolina, conceived and carried out the idea of purchasing Montreat for the Presbyterian Church in the United States (also known informally as the Southern Presbyterian Church). In 1913, Dr. Robert C. Anderson, then president of the Mountain Retreat Association, proposed that the grounds and facilities of the Association be used for a school during the academic year. In 1915, an Ad Interim Committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S. reported: “1. We have made a careful examination of the Montreat property, and believe that it could be made suitable for school purposes by installing heating facilities and adding up-to-date school equipment. In this way provision could easily be made for 350 to 400 pupils. 2. We have carefully considered the various schools within the bounds of our General Assembly and under the control of the various Synods and Presbyteries, and we believe that one need of our ecclesiastical school system is a Christian Normal School for Teachers. We believe that Montreat is well located and adapted for a school of this nature.”
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