Lees-McRae College is a private four-year college in Banner Elk, North Carolina affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Lees-McRae College has the highest elevation of any college or university in the United States east of the Mississippi River at 3,720 feet (1,130 m) above sea level. It is one of the few colleges to be named after two women, Suzanna Lees and Elizabeth McRae. In 2005, Lees-McRae became the first expansion site for New Opportunity School for Women, a program that helps educate and employ women in Appalachia. Lees-McRae College was founded in Banner Elk as an all-female high school in 1899 by Reverend Edgar Tufts, a Presbyterian minister. He named the school The Elizabeth McRae Institute after a well-respected educator in 1900. School benefactor Suzanna Lees' name was added in 1903 and the school's name became the Lees-McRae Institute when the school was chartered by the state in 1907. An all-male branch was founded during 1907 in Plumtree, North Carolina. The Plumtree facility was destroyed in a 1927 fire, leading the two campuses to merge at the Banner Elk site.