Last updated: September 5, 2023
Place
Emery Hall
Photograph by Sheila Darrow, courtesy of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
C1350 Brush Row Rd, Wilberforce, Ohio
Significance:
Architecture, Black Heritage, Education
Designation:
Listed in the National Register - Reference number 05001144
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Emery Hall, on the old Wilberforce Campus in Wilburforce, Ohio, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The property was built in 1913 and originally served as a dormitory for female students attending Wilberforce University, a historically Black university.
Wilberforce University was significant amongst HBCUs as a privately-owned, Black-owned and operated, and geographically northern HBCU. The school was founded in 1853 by a partnership between the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Tawawa Springs, Greene County, Ohio. Tawawa Springs was along a route of the Underground Railroad, and many refugees from slavery settled in the area. By the 1850s, Greene County had a sizable community of prosperous Black merchants, artisans, and farmers. The community continued to grow throughout the 19th century, and the university began to grow with it. Teaching and vocational departments were added with funding from the State of Ohio in 1887.
Emery Hall was built during a time of particularly significant growth for the university. The university needed more dormitory space for female students, and Dr. Hallie Q. Brown, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women, took charge of fundraising. Construction was funded primarily from donations from industrialist Andrew Carnegie and Miss E.J. Emery. Instructors and students from the university's vocational departments were heavily involved in construction, giving students practical experience in engineering, masonry, carpentry, and blacksmithing.
In 1951, the state-funded teaching and vocational departments separated from Wilberforce University, becoming what is now known as Central State University. Today, the two schools, which are across the street from one another, remain separate but share some operations. Much of the Central State and original Wilberforce campus was destroyed in a devastating tornado in 1974. Emery Hall is one of only three buildings that remain from the historic campus.
Wilberforce University was significant amongst HBCUs as a privately-owned, Black-owned and operated, and geographically northern HBCU. The school was founded in 1853 by a partnership between the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Tawawa Springs, Greene County, Ohio. Tawawa Springs was along a route of the Underground Railroad, and many refugees from slavery settled in the area. By the 1850s, Greene County had a sizable community of prosperous Black merchants, artisans, and farmers. The community continued to grow throughout the 19th century, and the university began to grow with it. Teaching and vocational departments were added with funding from the State of Ohio in 1887.
Emery Hall was built during a time of particularly significant growth for the university. The university needed more dormitory space for female students, and Dr. Hallie Q. Brown, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women, took charge of fundraising. Construction was funded primarily from donations from industrialist Andrew Carnegie and Miss E.J. Emery. Instructors and students from the university's vocational departments were heavily involved in construction, giving students practical experience in engineering, masonry, carpentry, and blacksmithing.
In 1951, the state-funded teaching and vocational departments separated from Wilberforce University, becoming what is now known as Central State University. Today, the two schools, which are across the street from one another, remain separate but share some operations. Much of the Central State and original Wilberforce campus was destroyed in a devastating tornado in 1974. Emery Hall is one of only three buildings that remain from the historic campus.