The Pleasant Retreat Academy/Memorial Hall is located at 129 East Pine Street. Chartered on December 10, 1813, this two-story Federal-style brick building was built between 1817 and 1820, making it the oldest remaining brick building in Lincolnton.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a local historic landmark, it has served many purposes, beginning as a boys academy.
Pleasant Retreat Academy educated some of the county’s most famous figures. Among its students were Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur, Georgia Gov. Hoke Smith, NC Gov. William A. Graham, and Texas Gov. James Pinckney Henderson.
Ari early newspaper advertisement shows that the academy opened its doors on February 1, 1820, under the leadership of the Reverend Joseph E. Bell, formerly of the Union Seminary in Sewanee, Tennessee.
During the years between 1878 and 1908, the building had a variety of uses. It served as a private residence for a time, but during much of this period a number of private schools were conducted on the ground floor. Miss Sallie B. Hoke conducted a private school in the building in 1884- 1885, and between 1900 and 1904, Miss Kate Shipp conducted the Mary Wood School there.
On August 27, 1908, the building, no longer a school, was dedicated as the Confederate Memorial Hall and the meeting place of Lincolnton’s Southern Stars Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The bottom floor served as a the first public library from 1923 to 1965.
