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Storer College, Anthony Hall, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV

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Storer College, Anthony Hall, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV

description

Summary

Significance: From 1881 to 1955, Anthony Hall served as the main building for Harpers Ferry's Storer College, a historically black school founded in 1867 by missionaries of the Freewill Baptist Church. In addition to administrative offices and basic classrooms, the building, at various times, also housed the school's dining hall, chapel, recitation rooms, music room, science laboratories, and the library. Because the building housed Storer College's administration offices from the time of its erection in 1881 through the school's closing in 1955, Anthony Hall lends itself particularly to investigating the overall academic history of the school: its opening as an institution of higher learning for African Americans following the Civil War; the difficulties faced in locating adequate funding for its continued operation; the effects of three damaging fires to the building and how it impacted the school and student body; and the eventual decline and closure of the school. Anthony Hall was also the site of several significant events in African American history including a dedication address by Frederick Douglass in 1882 and as a host venue for the second meeting of the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1906.

After Storer College closed in 1955, the building remained vacant until the school's former campus was acquired in 1962 by the National Park Service (NPS). Following an extensive rehabilitation in 1963, the building was renamed Wirth Hall in honor of Conrad L. Wirth, the Director of the National Park Service who was instrumental in creating a training center at Harpers Ferry. Opened in 1964 to facilitate the training and continuing education of NPS employees on the east coast, the Stephen T. Mather Training Center and the dedication of Wirth Hall were part of Mission 66, a decade-long, $1 billion program to enhance the country's national parks.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1823
Survey number: HABS WV-277-A
Building/structure dates: ca. 1847 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1881 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1928-1929 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1962-1964 Subsequent Work

date_range

Date

1933 - 1970
person

Contributors

Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
Storer College
Niagara Movement
Lauritzen, Peter J
Anthony, Lewis Williams
Freewill Baptist Church
Wirth, Conrad
place

Location

Harpers Ferry39.32413, -77.74095
Google Map of 39.324134, -77.7409467
create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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