Thornwell opened in Clinton, South Carolina on October 1, 1875, to ten orphaned children.
[1] It was founded by Reverend William Plumer Jacobs and named for noted theologian James Henley Thornwell.
[2] Thornwell's first donation was from a ten-year-old boy, Willie Anderson, who gave Dr. Jacobs fifty cents to "build your orphanage."
The Thornwell campus is unified by consistency of materials (granite stone) and by scale.
The Thornwell-Presbyterian College Historic District was listed in the National Register March 5, 1982.