William Peace's $10,000 gift bought the eight acres of Peace Institute, founded in 1857 and now William Peace University. Take a moment to imagine how this place began in 1857 as Peace Institute, founded by a group of men in the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina. A leading donation of $10,000 from William Peace, a prominent local merchant and founding member of the First Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, purchased the campus site — eight acres that still anchor the campus today.
William Peace himself is remembered as a longtime proponent of education, believed to have been in the first class of the University of North Carolina and a benefactor of Raleigh Academy, a school primarily for boys. The campus grew around the Main Building, a red-brick, white-columned Greek Revival structure whose construction began in 1859. Over the years the school became Peace Junior College and Peace College, and in 2012 it adopted the current name William Peace University and began admitting men to its day program.
Today you can feel both history and ongoing life here: more than 30 undergraduate majors, and even accelerated bachelor’s degrees through Peace Online for working adults. The red-brick Main Building and the eight-acre grounds spread out before you.