Qualla: Virginia Intermont College

Virginia Intermont College: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. At about one in the morning on December 20, 2024, the buildings caught fire. Main Hall, West Hall, East Hall, the Administration Building - the core of the 1891 campus that gave Virginia Intermont its name, the Intermont between mountains, the place where generations of young women had learned to ride and to paint and to argue. By six a.m. all four were gone. Crews from more than a dozen fire departments fought to keep embers off Hodges Hall and the houses next door. Virginia Intermont had closed ten years earlier, in 2014, after 130 years of educating Appalachian women. The fire took the buildings that the closure had not.

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Virginia Intermont College: Founded for the Daughters of Southwest Virginia

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Boosti45, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Reverend J.R. Harrison, a Baptist minister, opened Southwest Virginia Institute on September 17, 1884, in Glade Spring, Virginia. His goal was concrete: bring higher education within reach of women whose families could not send them to Richmond or Charlottesville. Boarding st...

Image: Boosti45 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Virginia Intermont College: Horses and Cobras

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cody R. Morelock, CC BY-SA 3.0. Through the 20th century Virginia Intermont built a reputation that lived in two unlikely places. The equestrian program collected more than 15 national championships across three different intercollegiate organizations. The Riding Center, six miles from main campus off Interstat...

Image: Cody R. Morelock | CC BY-SA 3.0

Virginia Intermont College: The Slow Closure

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. The financial trouble started years before the end. The Southern Association warned VI in late 2011 about its finances. In December 2012 the warning became probation. In 2013 the accreditor recommended removing the college from membership entirely; VI won a court injunction and k...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain

Virginia Intermont College: The Empty Hill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nyttend, Public domain. Bluefield College considered buying the campus and walked away after inspections revealed $20 million in deferred maintenance. In December 2016 the property sold at auction for $3.3 million to a Chinese-owned education company that announced plans to reopen as a college someday. ...

Image: Nyttend | Public domain