A recent “Today in History” column in the Asheville Citizen-Times focused on the Asheville Farm School for Boys (forerunner of the present-day Warren Wilson College), which opened its doors on November 30, 1894. The Swannanoa school was established under the auspices of the New York-based Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, “as part of its efforts to modernize and uplift poverty stricken Southern Appalachia.” The school could accommodate only 25 students its first year, but enrollment expanded as other Missions Board schools were consolidated with the Farm School. High school classes were phased out in the late 1950s, and after operating several years as a junior college, the school began offering four-year degrees in the late 1960s.
Today, the Warren Wilson College campus covers over 1100 acres, and is home to approximately 900 students from around the country and the world.