Founded by Berea College trustees with Pres. Frost as the main fundraiser after the Day Law of 1904 stopped coeducation of whites and blacks, Lincoln Institute took shape when the Berea board bought three farms totaling 444 acres for a school in 1909. Lincoln Institute opened to 85 black students on October 1, 1912, and stressed teacher training and industrial education. Well known black leaders included financial agent James Bond and later Pres. Whitney M. Young, Sr. The institute was designed by the New York firm of Tandy and Foster, black architects. In 1947, the school became part of the public education system. It opened as an institute for gifted but disadvantaged youth in 1967, and the school officially closed in 1970.