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Educational Development (1.5.5)

With the industrial and commercial resurgence of Elizabeth City during the late nineteenth century, educational oppormnities were improved for both whites and blacks. Progress was much more dramatic for blacks, and, because of research into the formation of what is now Elizabeth City State University, much better known. In 1882 a public school for black children was built on Cale Street, with both the street and school being named for politician Hugh M. Cale; this structure continued in use until the 1920s and was demolished in the 1930s (Deed Book 4, p. 431).

Because much of the difficulty in developing a system of public schools for blacks lay in the a lack of qualified teachers, emphasis was placed on improving available teacher training. By the mid 1880s, black teachers were able to take advantage of summer institutes held locally; the Colored Normal Institute in 1886 had an attendance of twenty, and the session in 1887 had thirty-one teachers enrolled. The success of these institutes underscored the need for continued local normal training for black teachers (Ballou 1966, 32-33). To further this goal, support was marshalled for a state colored normal school in Elizabeth City. In 1891 Representative Hugh Cale introduced a bill in the General Assembly that, when passed on March 3, created the state's second colored normal school, the Colored Normal School at Elizabeth City, now Elizabeth City State University. The school's purpose was to be the "teaching and training [of black] teachers . . . to teach in the common schools" of North Carolina (Ballou 1966, 45-51; The North Carolinian, March 4, 1891).

The school opened on January 4, 1892, with a budget of $900 and a faculty of two in a rented frame building that stood at what is now 200 Roanoke Avenue. The school's regional focus was reflected by the first class, which consisted of thirty-six students from Pasquotank, Perquimans, Washington, Camden, Currituck, Dare, and Bertie counties. The first session lasted only five months, with closing exercises held May 18, 19, and 20 in the county courthouse. The normal school soon moved to the building on Shannon Street (now 708 Herrington Road) that had been built for the school established by Cardozo in 1870 (Ballou 1966, 51, 58; Butchko 1989, 164-165). Here it remained until 1912, not only growing into the black educational focus for all of eastern North Carolina but becoming a magnet for the burgeoning black community of Elizabeth City. To the school and the town came educators who both inspired future teachers throughout the region and became active in the civic affairs of the town. Chief among these was Peter W. Moore (1859-1934), who came as principal in 1892 and served as the school's administrator until 1928 (Ballou, 58-62; Johnson 1980, 14-16; The Daily Advance, April 16, 1934 as repeated in Butchko 1989, 272).

Two other schools were formed in Elizabeth City during the 1890s to further educational opportunities for blacks. A Normal and Industrial School was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1893 and was successful enough to have a literary auxiliary by January 1895. Where the school first met is uncertain because it was not until September 1896 that it first owned property, a five-acre tract that in 1903 was acquired by the state for future expansion of the State Colored Normal School; it is now part of the Elizabeth City State University Campus. A building, now known only from a deed map, was erected sometime thereafter. The Normal and Industrial School apparently closed after its building burned about 1901 (Ballou, 1966: 63-64; Deed Book 27, p. 20; 17, p. 390; 21, p. 614). During the school's brief existence it not only offered another educational avenue for area blacks, but established the area south of the city as a locale for black education. The Roanoke Institute had much greater success. In 1896 the churches of the Roanoke Association (North Carolina and Virginia) chose Elizabeth City for the site of Roanoke Institute, a private high school organized to train students for the ministry. A large two-story frame Victorian building was erected on Body Road (now 200 Roanoke Avenue) near the structure first rented in 1892 by the State Colored Normal School. Even though the Roanoke Institute building was destroyed in a 1935 fire that also consumed much of its neighborhood, a new building was constructed on the same site in 1937; the school continues to train ministers today under the name Roanoke Collegiate Institute (The Daily Advance, February 23, 1935; Sanborn map 1908; Butchko 1989, 336 n. 191).

Improvement in school opportunities and facilities for white children during the 1880s and 1890s, while important, was less dramatic and diverse. This was primarily due to the fact that facilities were much better for whites than blacks to begin with, and because the private Elizabeth City Academy dominated the local educational climate. In July 1881 the academy trustees purchased a lot at what is now the corner of Road and Elizabeth streets and had a large two-story frame building erected soon thereafter (Deed Book 4, p. 82; Sanborn map 1896). At this site the academy flourished, and in 1891 it was said to be the largest private school in eastern North Carolina. Soon afterwards the name was changed to the Atlantic Collegiate Institute, which is claimed to have been a "preparatory school for all of the Albemarle" (Pasquotank Yearbook 1955, pp. 60-61, 83). During the late nineteenth century, the only known public graded school for whites was on Pool Street, now the site of the rear wing of the Elizabeth City Junior High School. A one-story frame building built before 1896 was replaced before 1902 by a large two-story structure that burned early 1910s (Sanborn maps, 1896, 1902, 1908, 1914).