It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States, which provided general educational opportunities to women in an era when co-educational institutions of higher learning were not yet fully open to students of both sexes. In 1855, funds for the school's first and only institutional building were obtained from Mary Monnett, a student who attended the school.

The main Wesleyan Female College Hall in Delaware, Ohio was razed in the late 1970s and the site is now occupied by Monnett Gardens. Wesleyan’s annual celebration of spring, Monnett Weekend, is held each April.