Western Female Seminary

Western Female Seminary, later Western College for Women, occupies a wooded 145-acre campus on the eastern edge of Oxford, Ohio, beside Miami University. Founded in 1853 under the leadership of the Reverend Daniel Tenney, it became the first of five daughter seminaries modeled on Mt. Holyoke and grew into a leading Midwestern women's college. Its buildings span from Peabody Hall, rebuilt in 1871 using walls of an earlier structure, through McKee Hall, Kumler Chapel (1918, designed by Thomas Hastings), Mary Lyons Hall and Presser Hall, with later background buildings that echo the stone construction. Local fieldstone and rounded cannonball stone bridges, a gazebo and an outdoor theater, supervised by mason Cephas Burns, mark the rolling landscape. Alumnae Hall, a Romanesque library and classroom building, was demolished in 1977. The college closed in 1974 and the campus passed to Miami University. The district was recognized for the cohesive architectural setting created by its buildings and grounds.