The school was established as a women's college by legislative enactment on February 18, 1891, as the State Normal and Industrial School and opened October 5, 1892. The school provided instruction in business, domestic science, and teaching with a student body of 223 and a faculty of 15 in its first year. R. S. Pullen and R. T. Gray gave the original 10-acre (4.0 ha) site in Greensboro, N.C. where the first building was erected with state funds totaling $30,000.