Women Students: "Westhampton Spirit"
The first women to attend Richmond College in the late 1890s were well aware of the opportunities higher education provided. Eager to experience college life in all its dimensions, serious about their education but also drawn to college social activities, these young women were the founders of what is today known as Westhampton Spirit.
Long before Westhampton College had been established, women students attending classes at Richmond College had formed the Coed Club, precursor of the Westhampton College Government Association. Richmond men responded with the Anti-Coed Club, but the die was cast: women at Richmond College would not only continue to grow in numbers, but in a few years they would have their own college.
In 1899, Lulie Gaines Winston, daughter of a faculty member, became the first woman to graduate from Richmond College and also the first woman to graduate from a Virginia college founded to educate men.
With the opening of Westhampton College in 1914, women students were no longer coeds. Under the coordinate system, they had their own classes, faculty, dining hall, and college traditions. They quickly demonstrated their intellectual commitment, forming an honor society, publishing a literary magazine, and using Westhampton's Reading Room, located in the Tower Room of North Court, day and night.
Eleven women, most of whom had begun their education at Richmond College, graduated from Westhampton in 1915 as the first senior class. Among them was Celeste Anderson (later O'Flaherty), the first president of the Westhampton College Government Association and later president of the Westhampton College Alumnae Association.
Westhampton Spirit extended to athletics as well. Westhampton's first faculty member, Fannie Graves Crenshaw, organized an athletic program for women that included tennis, hockey, basketball and track. The Westhampton College Athletic Association was formed in the college's first year, but it was several decades before women were eligible for athletic scholarships.
Community service also played an important role in Westhampton students' lives. Many were members of the YWCA and during World War I the college had its own Red Cross volunteer unit. A trolley brought non-residential women students to campus but also allowed the residential students to venture beyond campus (provided they had Dean Keller's permission!)
The lake divided the women's college from the men's and for many years a gate on the Westhampton side was locked at night. Near the site of the old gate is a bench dedicated to two of the first students on campus. The inscription on the bench reads: "J. Caldwell 'Tiny' Hicks RC '17 and Lula Jones Puckett WC '17 met nearby in 1915 and were married in 1917."