Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College
About this property
Edward Waters University is a private Christian historically Black university in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded in 1866 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) as a school to educate freedmen and their children. It was the first independent institution of higher education and the first historically black college in the State of Florida. It continues to be affiliated with the AME Church and is a member of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida. The AME Church was the first independent black denomination in the United States and was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the Civil War, it sent numerous missionaries to the South to plant AME churches. The first African Methodist Episcopal pastor in the state, William G. Steward, originally named the college Brown Theological Institute. Charles H. Pearce was also involved in establishing an educational institution for the AME church in Jacksonville. Struggling with some financial difficulties, the school closed for much of the 1870s. It reopened in 1883 as "East Florida Conference High School”, then changed to “East Florida Scientific and Divinity High School.” Over the next ten years, the curriculum was expanded. In 1892, the school was renamed for Edward Waters, the third bishop of the AME Church. A drawing of 1893 shows that the College President at that time was John R. Scott, Sr., first pastor of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church of Jacksonville, and a former member of the Florida Legislature. The original Edward Waters University campus was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1901. By 1904, the college obtained new land and work was started on the new facility. Edward Waters was accredited as a junior college in 1955 under President William B. Stewart and five years later had a restored four-year curriculum. Beginning in 1979, the school was accredited as a four-year institution by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and started awarding bachelor's degrees. Edward Waters University offers bachelor's degrees in eight academic programs including the following: Bachelor of Arts in communications, Music, Psychology, or Criminal Justice; Bachelor of Science in biology, Elementary Education or Mathematics; and Bachelor of Business Administration. Beginning in 1979, Edward Waters University (EWU) was accredited as a four-year institution by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS-COC). In 2004, Edward Waters University had submitted documents to SACS to support their request for reaccreditation. A Florida Times-Union investigation in October discovered that the EWU documents plagiarized sections of text and statistics from a similar Alabama A&M University document. The Commission on Colleges voted to drop EWU from membership in SACS, thus revoking the school's accreditation, but the school appealed. A hearing was held in Atlanta during February 2005, and the appeal by Edward Waters University was denied.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College listed on the National Register?
Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 3, 1976.
What type of historic resource is Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College?
Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College?
The period of significance for Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College is recorded as the industrial era.
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Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Centennial Hall-Edward Waters College will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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