For 100 years, Chipley Hall has stood by as young ladies turned into college-educated women and has seen an eager young college turn into a fast-growing, state-supported university with dozens of areas of study.
Completed in 1925, the dormitory was built at a time when rising enrollment necessitated additional housing on campus.
One hundred years later, Chipley Hall still serves as a residence hall for women and stands as a hallmark of the past on Lander University’s dynamic campus.
Lander is celebrating Chipley’s birthday with a fundraising campaign that will enable former residents and other supporters to put their names on spaces in the residence hall they hold dear.
Funding for renovations and scholarships for future Chipley women will ensure Chipley Hall continues to play a role in the education of generations ahead.
The memories of the girls from Chipley and the lovely friendships that I made there have been in my heart ever since I arrived at Lander. The support that I received during those years carried me through many wonderful experiences. I’ll never forget the excitement from my friends when I arrived back on campus from winning the Miss Universe pageant. The ladies at Lander were more than classmates. They were like sisters, and I cherish my Lander days and the lifelong friendships that I made.
Miss Universe 1954
Chipley held some of my favorite memories from my time at Lander. Our resident advisors would frequently put on community nights where all the girls would gather in the lobby, and we also would have self-care nights, movie nights, holiday parties and more. They truly made my experience the best. It felt like home. Chipley gave me the best first year at Lander and I will be forever grateful!
The Lander Foundation
I quickly realized the tile floor was a perfect place to hold dance parties; so, we danced often, much to the chagrin of our house mother! My memories of my time in Chipley Hall are central to my Lander experience because Chipley is just a very special place.
SC Superintendent of Education
I moved into Chipley on the third floor in 1968! I lived there for two years and loved every minute of it. We had one pay phone at the end of the hall for all of us to use! We also had a “Third Floor” song that we all had to learn. I still know every word to that somewhat risqué song today! We made some incredible memories those two years!
Lander Board of Trustees
I didn’t have a TV growing up. They had set up a TV in the lobby and we were watching the Oscars. Everybody was in there watching it. I had never seen it before that time, so I had a good time, too.
Being an African-American country, farm girl from Johnsonville, South Carolina, Lander’s campus reminded me of home – the green grass and trees and the flowers. It felt like family! Chipley was in the middle of campus and the “heart of a lot of activities.” Chipley was a meeting place for everyone if they were going elsewhere on campus or in town or just to sit in the grass and talk. The Dorm Mom, “Miss Gleason,” was a kind-hearted person who treated everyone as if they were her own children. That was the key … Chipley felt like home!
Marvin S. Chipley
Photo provided by
the Index-Journal.
A dedicated local businessman and a Lander school trustee, Marvin Sylvester Chipley provided almost a third of the funds needed to build Chipley Hall.
Chipley was a cotton broker for an area mill company – and industry many men in his family did business in, according to his obituary in the Index-Journal newspaper.
Chipley was civically minded, the announcement shows. He was, for a time, president of Greenwood’s Chamber of Commerce and remained on Lander’s board of trustees, even as he lived outside of South Carolina for the last 14 years of his life. He was also involved in his church and participated in other civic organizations.
Chipley died in 1944 at age 60 in New Orleans, where he had lived for the final 12 years of his life.
