The Ohio Women's Methodist Seminary was a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

located in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The seminary provided general educational opportunities to women in an era when

co-education Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

al institutions of higher learning were not yet fully open to students of both sexes. The Women's Seminary was governed by a board of directors chosen by the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

, which oversaw the operation, and ensured that the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

was in keeping with church teachings. In 1855, funds for the Seminary's first and only institutional building were obtained from Mary Monnett (later

Mary Monnett Bain Mary Monnett Bain (Mary Monnett; September 21, 1833, in Marion County, Ohio – July 30, 1885, in Osawatomie, Miami County, Kansas), following her mother's death, came into a very large sum of money. She is known for the construction of Monnett ...

), a student who attended the school. The resulting building, Monnett Hall, was named for her. Monnett Hall was razed in the late 1970s and the site is now occupied by Monnett Gardens.

See also