“C” is for Converse College

“C” is for Converse College. Converse College was founded in 1889 by a group of Spartanburg leaders to provide for the education of young middle-class women. The institution was named to honor its founder Dexter Edgar Converse. The college opened its doors in 1890 with 117 students. Unlike many southern women's colleges, Converse offered students a course of study roughly equivalent to that offered by male colleges. The college established a School of Music in 1910. Two years later Converse was accepted into the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States. The school's highly respected conservatory-style musical education drew students from all over the United States. Although men had been admitted to graduate programs in the 1940s it was not until 2020 that Converse College became coeducational at the undergraduate level.