Centenary Institute was a school in

Summerfield, Alabama Summerfield, also known as Valley Creek, is an unincorporated community in Dallas County, Alabama. Summerfield has one historic district included on the National Register of Historic Places, the Summerfield District. Most of the community was a ...

operated by the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

, from 1829 until the 1880s. The Centenary Institute was founded in 1829 as Valley Creek Academy, a local school, but was turned over to the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838. In celebration of the centennial of Methodism, the school was renamed the "Centenary Institute". A. H. Mitchell served as president of the institute from 1843 until 1856. In 1845, the school was conferred the power to grant degrees, and graduated its first class that same year. For the next two decades, the school was the largest in central Alabama, enrolling approximately 500 students. J. N. Montgomery was president from 1856 until the Civil War; he was followed by

Richard H. Rivers Richard H. Rivers (also known as Richard Henderson Rivers and R.H. Rivers) was a nineteenth-century educator. He was president of Centenary College of Louisiana from 1849 to 1853 and subsequently president of La Grange College near Leighton, Alaba ...

William J. Vaughn William J. Vaughn (February 15, 1834 – December 1, 1912) was an American university professor, school principal, librarian and book collector. He was one of the earliest professors at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and at Va ...

, and R. K. Hargrove. The Institute saw its fortunes decline precipitously during the war; by 1865 buildings were in need of repair, and in 1867 the school saw but three graduates. The Panic of 1873 impacted the school further, driving enrollment to fifty by 1874–75. In 1880, the Methodists ceased supporting the school, and the Institute began to act solely as a local school. The institute was abandoned by 1885, and its buildings were used as an orphan asylum. I. M. E. Blandin, ''

History of Higher Education of Women in the South, Prior to 1860 ''History of Higher Education of Women in the South, Prior to 1860'' was written by I. M. E. Blandin and published in 1909 by Neale Publishing Company. The 327 page book includes data on several hundred schools in the American South. The author ...

'', (New York: Washington, Neale Pub. Co., 1909), 87-89; Bob Parrott,
Centenary Institute
, retrieved January 27, 2009.

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