Lincoln Normal School

On July 17, 1867, nine ex-slaves—James Childs, Alexander H. Curtis, Nicholas Dale, John Freeman, David Harris, Thomas Lee, Nathan Levert, Ivey Pharish, and Thomas Speed—formed and incorporated the Lincoln School of Marion. After difficulty recruiting and paying teachers, the trustees made an agreement on September 10, 1868, with the American Missionary Association, an auxiliary of the Congregational Churches. The Reverend A. W. Steward, the first principal, also organized the First Congregational Church in the school in 1869. The school grew so rapidly that the American Missionary Association could not finance it, and in 1874 the State of Alabama was asked to take over the secondary department, which was formed into a normal school to train black teachers. A new building and more teachers were added, students came from all over the state, and William Burns Patterson became principal. An incendiary fire in 1887 destroyed the state school, and it was moved to Montgomery, where it became State Normal School, now Alabama State University. The people of Marion again persuaded the American Missionary Association to provide a school, and the Patterson home was turned into classrooms. In 1897 the association decided to abandon the school because it lacked the funds needed to make it efficient, but local supporters rallied behind the new principal, Mary Elizabeth Phillips, raising money and agreeing to furnish teachers with food and fuel so the school remained open. Under Phillips' guidance, Lincoln developed rapidly, with Livingston Hall, the first brick academic building, completed in 1902; Hope Cottage, a girls' dormitory, built by the boys in 1904; the shop remodeled that same year into a boys' dormitory; the Patterson home remodeled into a girls' dormitory and dining hall in 1905 and renamed Phillips Hall; Douglas Hall, a boys' dormitory, built by the boys in 1908; and Van Wagenen Hall built in 1909 for the elementary department. In 1919 a kindergarten and primary annex was added to Van Wagenen Hall and electricity was installed in all buildings. Woolworth Hall, housing the science and home economics departments and some teachers' quarters, was completed in 1922, and Ranny Hall, a dormitory for high school girls, was erected in 1926. The 1920s were hard years: dormitories were closed, the elementary department was discontinued, a health program was started, cooperatives were organized in the county, and older buildings were remodeled. On May 30, 1939, Phillips Memorial Auditorium was dedicated to the memory of Mary Elizabeth Phillips Thompson, who died in 1927. In 1943 the first black principal, Reverend E. A. Smith, was hired, and all white teachers had to leave when the state agreed to operate the school. The state purchased the eight-acre campus and forty-acre farm from the American Missionary Association in 1960, and during integration the school was formally closed in May 1970 after 103 years of service.

Marion, Alabama · United States