Normal School for Colored Girls
Normal School for Colored Girls (now known as University of the District of Columbia) established in Washington, D.C., in 1851 as an institution of learning and training for young African-American women, especially to train teachers.[2][3]
Miner Normal School | |
Miner Normal School in 2008 | |
| Location | 2565 Georgia Ave., NW., Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°55′24″N 77°1′21″W / 38.92333°N 77.02250°W |
| Built | 1913 |
| Architect | Leon E. Dessez; Snowden Ashford |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 91001490[1] |
| Added to NRHP | October 11, 1991 |
As Miner Normal School, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History edit
19th century edit
The school was founded by Myrtilla Miner in 1851, with the encouragement from Henry Ward Beecher and funding from a Quaker philanthropist after the school in Mississippi where she taught refused her permission to conduct classes for African-American girls.[3] While inappropriate today, the use of the term "colored" was considered polite in 19th-century speech.
Although the school offered primary schooling and classes in domestic skills, its emphasis from the outset was on training teachers. Miner stressed hygiene and nature study in addition to rigorous academic training.[3]
Within two months of opening, school enrollment grew from 6 to 40. Despite hostility from a portion of the community, the school prospered with the help of continued contributions from Quakers and a gift from Harriet Beecher Stowe (sister of Beecher) of $1,000 of the royalties she earned from Uncle Tom's Cabin.[3]
As it grew, the school was forced to move three times in its first two years, but in 1854, it settled on a 3-acre (1.2-hectare) lot with a house and barn on the city's edge. Around this time, Emily Edmonson enrolled in the school. To help protect the school and those involved with it, the Edmonson family took up residence on the grounds, and both Emily Edmonson and Myrtilla Miner learned to shoot.[3][4]
In 1856, the school came under the care of a board of trustees, among whom were Beecher and wealthy Quaker Johns Hopkins. By 1858, six former students were teaching in schools of their own. By that time, her failing health had lessened Miner's connection with the school, and from 1857 Emily Howland was in charge.[3]
In 1860, the school had to be closed, and the next year, Myrtilla Miner went to California to regain her health. A carriage accident in 1864 ended that hope, and Miner died shortly after her return to Washington, D.C.[3]
During the American Civil War, on March 3, 1863, the United States Senate granted the school a charter as the "Institution for the Education of Colored Youth" and named Henry Addison, John C. Underwood, George C. Abbott, William H. Channing, Nancy M. Johnson, and Myrtella Miner as directors.[5]
From 1871 to 1876, the school was associated with Howard University. In 1879, as Miner Normal School it became part of the District of Columbia public school system.
20th century edit
In 1929 an act of the U.S. Congress accredited it as Miner Teachers College.[2][3][6][7] Miner Teachers College and its predecessors were instrumental in the development of the black school system in the district between the 1890s and the 1950s and held a virtual monopoly on teaching jobs in black schools during that period. Many graduates found jobs in black school districts in other parts of the country, expanding the influence of the Miner school outside the district.[7]
In 1955, the school merged with Wilson Teachers College to form the District of Columbia Teachers College. In 1976, after additional incorporations, the school was renamed University of the District of Columbia.[2][6]
Building edit
The current Colonial Revival—Georgian Revival style building, built in 1913, was designed by Leon E. Dessez and Snowden Ashford.[1] The building is used for a broad range of community education programs, in addition to the teacher-training classes, which have been continuously offered there since it opened in 1914.[7]
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[1] In 2009, Howard University received an $800,000 grant from the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Fund to replace the building's roof and windows, as well as initiate a renovation on the building's auditorium.[8] In 2023, Howard announced that the building will go under further renovation, with the plan to share the space between the Howard University School of Education and the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science.[9]
Notable people edit
Students edit
- Aloncita Johnson Flood, New York City official
- Louise Daniel Hutchinson historian, attended the school.[10]
- Ruby Hurley graduate, NAACP leader
- Dolores Kendrick, former Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia
- Alma Thomas, artist
- West A. Hamilton, military officer and D.C. school board member
Faculty and staff edit
- Martha B. Briggs, principal, 1879-1883[11]
- Marguerite Williams, American geologist
- Otelia Cromwell, scholar
- Hilda Rue Wilkinson Brown, teacher and alumni
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b c "University of the District of Columbia". Peterson's. 2002. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Myrtilla Miner". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
- ^ http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/cfwtmpl.asp?url=/Content/CFW/MCWHProject/MCWHArchives/MCWomensHistoryEdmonson.asp 2006-10-08 at the Wayback Machine Harriet Beecher Stowe, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, (1852), John H. Paynter, Fugitives of the Pearl, Washington DC: Associated Publishers (1930) and Mary Kay Ricks, "A Passage to Freedom", Washington Post Magazine (February 17, 2002): 21-36
- ^ congressional charter by S. 536
- ^ a b [1] 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine History of the University of the District of Columbia
- ^ a b c "Miner Normal School (Miner Building, Howard University) - Home of Miner Normal School and Miner Teachers College, centers for the training of Washington's African-American teachers for almost 80 years. | DC Historic Sites". DC Historic Sites. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
- ^ McCann, Hannah (September 18, 2009). "20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities Receive Stimulus Grants for Building Preservation". Architect Magazine.
- ^ "Howard University Announces Historic Miner Building's Rebirth, Jumpstarts $785M Campus Master Plan". The Dig at Howard University. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
- ^ "Louise Daniel Hutchinson Interviews". Record Unit 9558. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ Smith, Jessie Carney; Phelps, Shirelle (1992). Notable Black American Women, Book 2. ISBN 9780810391772.
External links edit
- Congressional records: Miner Teachers College