Page 32 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

One educational institution that was almost estabished in Lake
City was the state’s first higher–educational institution for African
Americans. Florida trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
(AME) wanted to establish an institution after the Civil War and at
their 1870 conference in Tallahassee decided to establish such a school
and then bought ten acres someplace in Lake City for $3,000. The
new school, Brown Theological Institute, was to provide general
education opportunities, as well as train new teachers and ministers.

The state legislature officially chartered the school in 1872,
and workers began building it the next year. Its name was changed to
Brown University in 1874. But the embezzlement of $3,000 in
construction funds and the loss of $20,000 in bond and script in a
house fire led to the stoppage of construction. Because of a mechanics’
lien filed by unpaid carpenters, officials sold the building and land
there in a public auction. An attempt was made to replace the school
by a high school in Palatka, but that effort failed. The AME Church
would eventually establish a high school in Jacksonville in 1884 which
would become Edward Waters College. 22

The school that became Jacksonville’s Edward Waters College
(pictured here) almost began in Lake City.
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www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 7C3282B3-DDE1-49C3-985A-3A9C9467368D