For more than 40 years, horses were an important part of life at Meredith. Perhaps these students were members of the popular Hoof Print Club. Note the background of the photo: Johnson Hall with massive stone steps (they were removed in 1956).
The first horse was brought to Meredith in 1943 by a homesick freshman. Soon there were five horses, and an equitation program began. Popularity peaked in the mid-1960s when about 40 horses, with names such as Silver Mac, Flashing Challenger, and Spitfire, lived on campus in a large stable-barn complex with interior and exterior riding rings. By the late 1980s, student interest was low and Meredith discontinued the program.
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From Dr. Mary Lynch Johnson, _A History of Meredith College_, 2nd ed., p. 231: “The stone steps were beautiful, but they had misled into the library on the second floor many a bewildered seeker for the administrative offices or the parlors which were on the first floor. They were replaced by a terrace bordered with low-growing cedar and a triple-door-way entrance, with the College seal embedded in the center of the floor just inside the middle door. In 1958 further alterations were made so that this entrance led into a spacious lobby, giving a more gracious welcome to visitors than had the doors on either side of the stone steps.”
Why were Johnson Hall’s massive stone steps removed in 1956?