Poteat Residence Hall provides suite-style housing for approximately 100 first year students. Each room has built in furniture and is connected to another room by a bathroom. The residence hall also has parlors, kitchenettes, and a laundry room. It is located on the east side of campus and is joined to Belk Dining Hall and to Faircloth Residence Hall by an arcade.
The groundbreaking ceremony for Poteat Dormitory took place on September 26, 1961. This newest residence hall was dedicated and named in honor of three members of the Poteat family: Ida Poteat, who served as the head of the art department from 1899 until 1940; her nephew Rev. E. McNeill Poteat, a member of Meredith's Executive Committee and Board of Trustees; and her great-nephew Dr. William Poteat, a professor and president of Wake Forest College and an advisor to Meredith in establishing its curriculum.
The building opened to students on Founders' Day, November 8, 1962. Poteat Residence Hall was built to house 106 senior students and cost $498,000. The rooms were arranged suite-style to accommodate 4 students and contained built-in furniture. Each floor had a kitchenette, lounge, laundry room and special facility for students to wash their hair.
Ida Isabelle Poteat came to the Baptist Female University in 1899, the first year that classes were held, and remained until her death in 1940. "She turned the art department into one of the most highly-regarded in the southern United States, modeling its curriculum on those of schools in New York, Philadelphia, and Paris." Poteat designed the original costumes for the faculty's production of Alice in Wonderland and designed the school's seal, adopted in 1909.
Edwin McNeill Poteat, Jr. as the Tar Heel of The Week in 1955. Professionally, Poteat was in the course of his life a clergyman, missionary, professor, college president, and writer. In addition he was a musician, athlete and activist for pacifism.
William Poteat, Ida Isabelle Poteat's great-nephew, was a professor of philosophy, culture and religion at the University of North Carolina (1947-1957) and Duke University (1960-1987.)
Ninety-four seniors moved into the yet unnamed new dorm on September 9, 1962.
Each room in Poteat was furnished with "sofa-style beds, wardrobes, chest-of-drawers, and study desks."
Carlyle Campbell Library
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
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