04/13/2023
Our latest mural project highlights the Mont Amoena Female Seminary, which was located in Mt. Pleasant, NC from 1859 to 1927. This project involved fascinating research -- we got a glimpse into the world of the young women who were students at this school. This piece will be a great addition to the Layers of History program for the town of Mt. Pleasant. This is a digital rendering, the mural will be installed soon!
Pleasant Life
Fun Fact Friday
To close out Women’s History Month, we are going to share some exciting news. Mount Pleasant will soon have its second mural in “Layers of History” mural program. “Greetings from Mont Amoena” will honor the legacy of the Mont Amoena Female Seminary which educated young women from 1859 to 1927 in Mount Pleasant. The name “Mont Amoena” was derived from the Latin for “Mount Pleasant”. The school was overseen by the North Carolina Lutheran Synod and provided higher education for women when such an institution was rare. Students’ education focused on literature, language, mathematics, natural sciences, and the arts. The original wood structure school building sat on South Main Street (near the First Baptist Church sign). The structure was expanded several times taking on a Victorian aesthetic. That structure burned down in 1911. A new modern brick structure was opened in 1913 and was utilized until 1927 when the school ultimately succumbed to insurmountable challenges. The abandoned building fell into ruin and was demolished in 1967 after First Baptist Church purchased the property.
The new mural will be located just 600 feet north of where Mont Amoena once stood, on the side wall of the Michele Burns Esthetics building on South Main Street facing the Buddy’s Restaurant parking lot and Franklin Street near the Mont Amoena State Historical Marker. The mural was designed by Caswell Turner Munjas of Cicada Studios from the extensive treasure trove of photographs assembled by the Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society and the thesis project work of Denise Steward McLain, “Memories of Mont Amoena” (https://montamoena.org/). The mural is scheduled to be installed towards the end of April, just in time for the April 29 Downtown Spring Fling and “I Love My City” events (if timing and weather cooperate). The mural is made possible through a matching Grassroots Project Assistance Grant, received by the Town of Mount Pleasant, NC, supported and administered by the Cabarrus Arts Council and North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.