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Photographer's Note: "I have been intrigued by this old building everytime
I drove past it in Crockett. Today I decided
to explore a bit and took several pictures." - George
Lester, October 17, 2005
Readers'
Forum
Subject: Addition to Mary Allen College of CrockettThe
Last President of Mary Allen College, in Crockett
Texas was the Reverend E. S. Davis. For a number of years after Mary Allen
closed, Pastor Davis resided in Palestine,Texas. He retired from the Palestine
Independent Sschool District until his passing about 8 years ago.
At
the time that Mary Allen closed it was considered a Junior College with one of
its last students becoming the first Black Warden in the history of the Texas
Department of Corrections, Dr.Hubert Scott. - Rodney Paul Smith, November 25,
2005 |
Historical
Marker TextMary
Allen SeminaryIn
1886 the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States, under the leadership of the group's secretary the Rev. Richard Allen,
began planning for the establishment of a black girls' school in Texas.
After a statewide survey, they chose Crockett
as the school site because of the area's large black population and because of
a local black parochial school operated by the Rev. Samuel Fisher Tenny, pastor
of the city's First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Allen's wife Mary, for whom
the school was named, was instrumental in raising the organizational funds for
the new seminary. Dr. Byrd R. Smith became the school's first black president
in 1924 and initiated a period of growth which included the adoption of new programs
and the admission of male students. Transferred to the Missionary General Baptist
Convention of Texas in 1944, Mary Allen College became a 4-year liberal arts institution.
In 1972, plagued by a series of legal and financial setbacks, the school closed.
Once the site of a 12-building campus and the home of a noted academic program
of quality education and religion, this site serves as a reminder of the proud
heritage of Texas' black population.
Mary
Allen Seminary Historical Marker > Click here |
 |
Mary
Allen College Today
Photo
courtesy Kimberly Mason, May 2012 |
Window
close-up
Photo
courtesy Kimberly Mason, May 2012 |
A front
view showing the old fountain on the plaza
Photo
courtesy George
Lester, October, 2005 |
An
interior view showing the collapsed floors through the roof.
Photo
courtesy George
Lester, October, 2005 |
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Escapes,
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