In 1902, 31-year-old Presbyterian pastor Samuel M. Tenney found a bundle of manuscripts in a second-hand bookstore in Houston, Texas. The store's proprietor, who evidentially had planned to dispose of the loose papers, gave Tenney the manuscripts at no cost.
The salvaged manuscripts--primarily made up of a student notes from a Senior The...
After contracting influenza during WWI, Tenney's hearing, which he had been gradually losing since childhood, deteriorated. He was unable to continue serving as a minister.
Then, in 1924, on his way to a class reunion at Princeton Theological Seminary, Tenney visited the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) in Philadelphia&n...
In 1927, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States adopted a plan to form a new agency--the Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches.
President of the Mountain Retreat Association, Rev. Robert C. Anderson, promised free, fireproof housing to the foundation. All materials and operati...
Dr. Tenney died in December 1939 and Rev. Thomas H. Spence Jr. became Acting Curator. (He was named Executive Director in 1956.)
In early 1940, Union Seminary proposed that the Heritage Foundation be moved to Richmond, VA. The proposal was declined, but it was obvious that a larger space was needed. An annex in Anderson Auditorium ...
After many delays, construction began in October 1952.
The building--dedicated as Spence Hall-- was completed in 1953 and came in under budget thanks to: 1) the new highway being built between Old Fort and Ridgecrest and 2) the construction of Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville.
Earlier Montreat buildings had exhausted the sup...
On July 1, 1954, 1,200 guests attended a formal opening of the building to the public during a two-hour period. At one point, the line of people waiting to get in the door extended from the building almost to Lake Susan.
Image: Entrance Hall, Historical Foundation Building; became a museum as well as an archive and research center. The ...
By 1979, to house the Foundation's quickly expanding collection, the Foundation began planning to construct a library annex addition to Spence Hall.
The annex--Freeland Hall--was completed in 1982.
The foundation's work embraced four areas: 1) noncirculating library; 2) archives with sermons, pictures, correspondence, etc; 3) loca...
In 1988, the Historical Foundation merged with the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. The Historical Foundation became known as the Montreat office (or Southern Regional Office) of the PHS.
The PHS served as the Department of History for the General Assembly of PC(USA) with repositories in both Philadelphia and Montre...
On June 21, 2006 , the General Assembly of the PC(USA) voted 348-147 to approve a plan that would close the Montreat office, "citing financial savings and the advantages of having more records consolidated in Philadelphia."
Despite a battle to save the office or transfer ownership to a local entity, about 60% of th...
Asheville Citizen-Times, June 7, 2008: A new museum and learning center opened on May 24 highlighting the story of Montreat and the Presbyterian heritage in Western North Carolina. The new Presbyterian Heritage Center features historical books and artifacts as well as interactive exhibits.
The center worked with the Montreat Confer...
