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Livingstone College

http://livingstone.edu/NewLivingstone/


School history taken from: http://www.lib.co.rowan.nc.us/histor...lege/index.htm


Some Livingstone College History

By Reginald W. Brown

Livingstone College began as Zion Wesley Institute in Concord, North Carolina in December 1879 for the purpose of training ministers and Christian laity for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This was the fourth attempt to establish a school for the A.M.E. Zion Church that ended with its closure after three sessions in May 1881. Ineffective fund raising strategies relegated the institute’s existence to a legal document on paper.

The fifth attempt was successful. It began when Bishop James Walker Hood persuaded Rev. Joseph Charles Price to become the institute’s chief fund raising agent during the September 1881 Ecumenical Methodist Conference in London, England. Bishop Hood returned to America after the conference while Rev. Price remained in England until he raised over $10,000 by the spring of 1882.

While Rev. Price was in England, over 38.aces of land and a farmhouse known as Delta Grove was purchased from James Madison Gray in Salisbury, N.C. in the Spring of 1882 The trustees of the institute lead by Bishop Hood purchased the land with $3,000 from England and over $1,000 donated from the black and white citizens of Salisbury. Delta Grove located in the suburbs of Salisbury, NC , 20 miles north of Concord, at the time of purchase became the permanent home of Zion Wesley Institute and its successors. The farmhouse that was the residence of J. M. Gray, a local attorney, became Huntington Hall in honor of Collis P. Huntington, a railroad magnet.

The institute opened in October 1882 with Rev. Price as President and was organized as departments designed to instruct students on grammar school through collegiate and theological levels of education. The grammar school qualified students for the normal course designed for teacher training. Normal school graduates were admitted to the collegiate course. By 1892 the theological department began training graduates from the collegiate department. In later years the collegiate department became the School of Arts and Science, the normal school became Livingstone High School, and the theological department evolved into Hood Theological Seminary.

On February 19, 1885 the institute was re-chartered as Zion Wesley College. In February 1887, Zion Wesley College was renamed Livingstone College in honor of Dr. David Livingstone who was a missionary, doctor, explorer, scientist and anti-slavery activist who spent 30 years exploring the continent of Africa and serving as an advocate for African people.

Livingstone College began the twentieth century with the incorporation of the Salisbury Colored Normal School, the antecedent of A & T State University in Greensboro, NC. around 1900, and the East Tennessee Industrial School in 1902. The Ph. D. program that began in 1895 was terminated in 1902. The lower grades were eliminated by 1906. The Andrew Carnegie Library was constructed in 1908 and the Hood Theological Seminary building was completed in 1910 and dedicated in May 1911.

The second quarter of the twentieth century was Livngstone’s first nadir. Constuction of the Price Memorial building that began around 1921 was not completed until 1943 due to a lack of funds and dwindling resources. The industrial department was closed. Hood Theological Seminary ceased to exist as a graduate program and the teacher education course discontinued in 1927. Livingstone College High School was phased out to become Price High School in 1932. A major reorganization took place between 1925 and 1940 that led to the reopening of Hood Theological Seminary as a graduate school, full accreditation of the College, associate membership of the Seminary in a leading accrediting agency, and the completion of the Price Memorial Building. By the third quarter of the twentieth century, Livingstone College and Hood Theological Seminary were on a more secure financial footing.

The building boom that began in the 1940’s and 50’s continued during the 1960’s and early 1970’s characterized the third quarter of the twentieth century. Improvements and additions to academic programs and the physical plant were made. The fourth quarter of the twentieth century was the second nadir that nearly closed the College and Seminary in 1987. Once again Livingstone pulls a miracle on Monroe Street and continues to serve as a “four-year undergraduate, private, African Methodist Episcopal Zion affiliated, co-educational, residential, liberal arts, historically black college.” Today Hood Theological Seminary and Livingstone College exist as separate and independent institutions.

More information on David Livingstone: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~neils/africa/livingstone.htm





Ballard Industrial Hall was constructed in 1887 from bricks made from the clay pits on campus. Students in the Industrial Department performed most of the work. The building was named for Stephen F. Ballard and has been used as a main classroom building, department of carpentry, shoe making and printing. It now houses the student services center and campus bookstore.