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ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY, MISSISSIPPI |
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| HISTORY OF ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY |
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THE ORIGINAL CAMPUS In 1840, Dr Jeremiah Chamberlain, founder and president of Oakland College, reported on progress to Governor McNutt as follows: "We have 250 acres of land... and subscriptions to above $ 100,000, near one-half of which is due in the form of a permanent fund. Out buildings are a president's house, a professor's house, a steward's house and fifteen cottages for lodging the students, calculated to contain from six to eight students each. The first story of a main building, 100 by 65 feet, is now raised, and the house shall be finished three stories high as soon as funds will warrant it." |
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ALCORN STATE
UNIVERSITY (1871) Oakland College managed to continue operation until 1861. In 1871 the buildings were purchased for $ 42,000 by the State in order that a school might be established for blacks. Oakland College reorganized as Chamberlain-Hunt Academy and relocated to Port Gibson. Incorporated on May 13, 1871. Alcorn University was named for James Alcorn, the twenty-eighth governor of Mississippi, who first suggested that Oakland College by acquired to establish a normal school for training black teachers. Hiram Revels, the |
| first Negro to be elected to the United States Senate, was selected as the school's first president, serving from 1871 until 1882. Under Revels, an agricultural department was created, and the name was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, the first land grant college for blacks in the United States (1878). Alcorn became the first college which had awarded degrees to black as well as white students. The school continues to be maintained as one of Mississippi's three land grant institutions, and was awarded university status in 1974. |
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OAKLAND COLLEGE 1830 - Oakland College was founded by Dr Jeremiah Chamberlain. Chamberlain envisioned Oakland as serving the 300,000 inhabitants of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Representatives of three Louisiana parishes and eight Mississippi counties met at Bethel Church in January 1830, and approved Chamberlain's proposal to establish an "Institution of Higher Learning under the care of the Mississippi Presbytery". While its founders were searching for a permanent location, the school opened with three |
| students on May 14, with Dr Chamberlain serving as President. By July of 1830, 230 acres had been given to Oakland College, and construction of the first buildings began. The early years of Oakland College were characterized by growth and optimism. The optimistic future of Oakland was severely curtailed with the death of its founder and president, Dr Jeremiah Chamberlain in 1851. Chamberlain, an ardent Unionist and Whig. Chamberlain's death, Oakland moved into a period of slow growth. The college's final decline was precipitated by the Civil War. |
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ALCORN AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE Established May 13, 1871, as Alcorn University of Mississippi on the site of Oakland College. Hiram Revels, first president. Re-organized 1878 as Alcorn A & M. Oldest land-grant college for Negroes in the United States. |
| HISTORIC BUILDINGS AT ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY |
| OAKLAND CHAPEL Erected in 1840 by The Presbyterian Church. Restored by the State of Mississippi during the administration of Governor James P Coleman 1956 - 1960. |
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OAKLAND MEMORIAL CHAPEL Construction on Oakland Memorial Chapel was begun in 1840 by Dr Jeremiah Chamberlain, the college's founder and president. It was completed in 1851, two years after the death of Dr Chamberlain. While this structure was consistently referred to as the Chapel, the building also housed recitation and library rooms, space for philosophical and chemical apparatus, and an observatory in the cupola. Oakland Chapel therefore united the religious and academic activities of the college in one building. |
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THE CHAPEL 1840 - 51 Greek Revival. This structure, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is one of the finest in Greek Revival style remaining in Mississippi. The Chapel is in the familiar Greek temple form. Its two principal floors are raised above a high basement, a non-classical but functional arrangement which provides additional classroom space. The pedimented portico of six unfluted Doric columns is truly monumental. The height of the ground floor piers provides a showcase for the magnificent cast iron stairs which was |
| donated to the college after Windsor burned in 1890. The six cast iron balustrade panels are also from Windsor. The roof gable is topped by a tower. Because there was no Greek precedent for a tower or steeple atop a temple, such a feature was a major problem in the design of a temple-type building where a tower or steeple was appropriate. The steeple or tower is a vertical form inherited from Gothic architecture, while Greek architecture is essentially horizontal. |
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| OAKLAND MEMORIAL CHAPEL |
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| PRESIDENTIAL DRIVE | FISHER FIELD |
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