The First District Agricultural College was authorized by an act of the Alabama Legislature and opened on this site in 1896. In honor of the new school, the street in front was changed from Grove Hill Road to College Avenue. An Experimental Station was established about 1/2 mile north on what is now a shopping center and housing area. In 1927, the State Legislature established a Demonstration Farm operated jointly by the school and the extension farm agent alongside the Coffeeville Road 1 1/2 miles north of here; the farm was terminated and sold in 1939. The purposes of the college were to teach scientific and practical agriculture, to educate and train young men and women as teachers in the state's public schools, to prepare those who wished to pursue study at higher institutions of learning, and to give a good practical education to those who could not attend such institutions. The school was significant to the educational, social, and cultural life of Clarke and surrounding counties. Subsequently renamed First District Agricultural School, and later State Secondary Agricultural School, its 3-storied building was demolished, and the graded and high school were consolidated in a new brick building in 1936.