FEMALE SEMINARY BUILDING—WORTHINGTON
A Fine Example of Southern Colonial Three-story Portico
In 1835 Reverend Jacob Young. a presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was assigned to the Franklin County district. He felt that a great need existed for a female seminary in the area, bur had not found a community that felt as he did.
When he finally visited Worthington he found the people there keenly interested in his project. There he also found Miss Sarepa Marsh, supervisor of a private school, who was well prepared to take charge of a seminary.
Although the seminary building was commenced in 1839, it was not finished until two years later. A charter was soon obtained for the school, the first female seminary of the Methodist Church in the west. It was continued as a seminary for many years, but largely because of the co-educational program at Ohio Wesleyan University, less than fifteen miles distant, the school was discontinued.
This three-story brick building is the monarch of all those now existing in Worthington. The situation was well chosen for the purpose for which it was to be used. It must ever arrest the attention and challenge the admiration of the student of Ohio architecture. Time has dealt gently with it. Like a veteran of many campaigns, it shows a few honorable scars, and while hoary with age, it is yet no ruin, but a comfortable habitation.
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