State Teachers And Agricultural College
(The Hubbard School)
Robert Ciucevich
Historic Preservation Planner Middle Georgia Regional Development Center
The Hubbard Elementary School, in Forsyth, Monroe County, is located on the former campus of the State Teachers and Agricultural College (STAC). William Merida Hubbard founded the school in 1900, and it was incorporated in 1902 as the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School. The school’s mission was to prepare African American teachers for the education of black youth in Monroe and surrounding counties. In 1916, the school became a senior high school. By 1917, the school attained county Training School status and was classified an A class accredited high school. As a result of the Smith- Hughes Act of 1918, the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School became the first
African American vocational school in Georgia. The following year Principal
Hubbard successfully petitioned the Monroe County Board of Education to make all of the African American schools in the county branch schools of the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School. In 1922, the Georgia General Assembly passed legislation to make the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School the “school for agricultural and mechanical arts for the training of Negroes.” In 1927, the school became a junior college. By the end of the 1920s, the school enrolled over 2,000 students, offering day. night, correspondence, and summer school classes, with 17 regular teachers and 27 instructors for summer school. The school owned approximately half of the institution’s farmland, totaling over 300 acres.
In 1931, the Georgia General Assembly changed the name of the school to the State Teachers and Agricultural College (STAC), as the school was the official state college for training African American teachers. In 1932, STAC became one of three African American colleges in the state university system. The Exchange
Teachers Plan, hallmark of the school’s contribution to education in the state, was developed and introduced at STAC in 1933. The school’s program trained African American teachers for service in rural county school systems statewide. Teachers from Georgia and neighboring states were sent to STAC by county school systems to receive their teachers’ certificates. Despite the success the school had in training African American teachers, the Georgia Board of Regents elected to close the school in 1938-1939. investing their resources in Fort Valley State College in nearby Peach County. However, the legacy of STAC lived on in the faculty at Fort Valley State College, who continued the Exchange Teachers Plan until the desegregation of Georgia’s public schools in 1970.
Because the school had grown considerably since its inception, the construction of a new campus within walking distance of the original complex was begun in 1930. By 1936, several brick buildings were built, including the administration building, a chapel, the home economics building, the teachers’ cottage, dormitories. the gymnasium, and the president’s house.
In 1939, the old STAC campus became the property of the Monroe County Board of Education, who reopened the school as the Hubbard Training School, Monroe Countys first African American high school. Samuel Hubbard,
the son of William Hubbard, served as
the school’s principal. In 1955, a new
school building was built and the name
of the school was changed to Hubbard
Elementary and High School. Samuel
Hubbard continued as principal of the
school until Monroe County’s schools
were desegregated in 1970.
The
Hubbard Elementary School continues
to operate today as a unit of the Monroe Samuel E. Hubbard
County school system.
In 1986, several graduates and faculty of the Hubbard School formed the Hubbard Alumni Association (HAA). HAA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve the legacy of the Hubbard School through the creation of a museum and to promote educational excellence by providing two annual partial scholarships. Since its inception, HAA has awarded $500 scholarships to 27 students. HAA recently secured a 15 year lease on the Hubbard Dormitory from the Monroe County Board of Education to rehabilitate the building for use as a museum and cultural center. The building, originally built in 1934- 36 to serve as a women’s dormitory, is the most prominent building remaining from the 1930s era campus of the State Teachers and Agricultural College.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Hubbard School, the Middle Georgia Regional Development Center submitted a National Register nomination for the dormitory and the remaining historic campus buildings in October 2001. HAA recently received a $9,000 Georgia Heritage Grant from the Historic Preservation Division, Department of Natural Resources, to prepare a master plan for the dormitory rehabilitation. The Hubbard Alumni Association (HAA) secured a lease from the Monroe County Board of Education for this dormitory on the campus of the State Thachers and Agricultural College(STAE). The Middle Georgia Regional Development Center is submitting a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the dormitory and remaining historic campus buildings of STAC and the Hubbard School.