History
Shortly after the Civil War, the Caldwell Place, a tract of some 500 acres in Gaston County North Carolina, was purchased by the Reverend Jeremiah O’Connell, a missionary priest. It was his desire that this tract be accepted by a religious community that would use it to develop an institution for the education of youth. At the request of Bishop James Gibbons of Richmond, Virginia, the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, agreed to accept the land and to found a community and school. On April 21, 1876, the Reverend Herman Wolfe, O.S.B., arrived to take possession of the property. The young foundation became an independent abbey on December 19, 1884, with the Right Reverend Leo Haid, O.S.B., elected as the first abbot on July 14, 1885.
Originally chartered as St. Mary’s College by the State of North Carolina on April 1, 1886, the school’s name was changed to Belmont Abbey College in 1913. Reorganized as a junior college in 1928, it became a four-year institution in September 1952, and a coeducational institution for resident students in 1972.