Pfeiffer University is a comprehensive United Methodist-related university located in the unincorporated community of Misenheimer, North Carolina. The history of the university dates to 1885-1909, when Miss Emily C. Prudden founded the Oberlin Home and School at Lick Mountain, near Hudson in Caldwell County. The institution was renamed the Ebenezer Mitchell Home and School to commemorate the stepson of Mrs. Mary A. Mitchell of Dayton. Ebenezer made improvements to the property. The school relocated to nearby Lenoir as a result of a fire in January 1908. That location lacked adequate facilities, so the school moved to its present location within two years. The curriculum, based on junior college guidelines, was added in 1928, and in 1934, the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction granted accreditation to the school as Mitchell Junior College. The Pfeiffer family (Henry and Annie Merner Pfeiffer) gave generous gifts for constructing the four brick buildings and the President's Home of the college in 1935. Hence, the name Pfeiffer was used for the first time during the academic year 1935-36 to honor the couple from New York City. In 1942, the college was accredited as Pfeiffer Junior College by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the University Senate of the Methodist Church. In 1960, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accredited the school as a four-year college. In 1977, a satellite campus in the South Park area of Charlotte was opened, with undergraduate classes in criminal justice. Baccalaureate degrees for adults in business administration, health care management, liberal arts, information management systems, criminal justice, and organizational communications, are available at the five-acre urban campus. Chartered as a university in 1996, the small private educational institution recently enhanced its educational outreach by adding a campus at the Triangle in Charlotte and one in Raleigh, the state capital. Undergraduate schools maintained by the university are of Business; Education, Fine Arts; Language, Literature, and Communication; Natural and Health Sciences; Religion; and Social and Behavioral Sciences. The School of Graduate Studies has its headquarters on Charlotte campus. Also, undergraduate and graduate courses, and Adult Studies/Continuing Education can be taken via the internet. The Gustavus Adolphus Pfeiffer Library, the main branch of the Pfeiffer library system, is located on the north side of the Misenheimer Campus, with more than one million volumes. The Beth Haltiwanger Conference and Retreat Center on Lake Tillery, provides a lodging facility, as well as distinctive programs for personality development.