The seminary was established and owned by John Motley Morehead. Methodist minister N. H. D. Wilson recalled that it was built by David McKnight. An article in the Greensboro Patriot of May 3, 1842, lauded its “extensive” buildings in “fine Architectural taste, erected for the purpose.” In 1853, architect Alexander Jackson Davis was asked to provide a design for the school. He noted in his daybook, May 20, 1853, “Mr. Conrad visited N. Y. I make drawings for Gov. Morehead’s Edgeworth, Greensboro, plan, elev. front rear end on yellow paper, $10.00” (Alexander Jackson Davis Collection, New York Public Library). It is not known whether Davis’s plan was executed. During the Civil War, the school closed and its facilities burned.